Charges Dismissed in Toyota Sudden Acceleration Case

A federal judge in New York City has dismissed a criminal charge that Toyota Motor Corp. misled lawmakers and government regulators about problems with its cars accelerating suddenly.

An analysis by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2010 linked the issue to 89 U.S. deaths. Toyota denied wrongdoing, and investigators were unable to find an electronic glitch to blame.

In 2009-2010 Toyota recalled more than 10 million Toyota, Lexus and Scion brand vehicles to fix loose floor mats and sticky accelerator pedals that could cause the problem. The company also installed brake override systems that cut power to the engine if they detect simultaneous signals to accelerate and brake.

The carmaker has been under three years of monitoring as part of a $1.2 billion settlement of the charges in 2014. A year earlier the company agreed to pay $1.6 billion to settle economic claims that the sudden-acceleration scandal hurt vehicle resale values. Toyota also faced several state-level lawsuits from victims of crashes blamed on cars that accelerated unexpectedly.

At the time, U.S. District Judge William Pauley described Toyota’s cover-up as a “reprehensible picture of corporate misconduct” and said he hoped the U.S. Dept. of Justice would hold the ultimate decision-makers at Toyota accountable. Yesterday he granted the department’s request to dismiss the charges but expressed disappointment that further investigation had been abandoned.