NHTSA Denies Request to Probe Toyota Corolla Acceleration

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has refused a request to further pursue a complaint that 2006-2010 Toyota Corolla small sedans may accelerate at low speeds, overpowering the brakes.

The request from 2010 model Corolla owner Robert Ruginis claims his car repeatedly surged at low speed when the brake was depressed. Ruginis says the car did so last summer when his wife applied the brake while parking, resulting in a crash.

But NHTSA's 23-page response says the Ruginis car's event data recorder showed no brake pedal application until impact. The agency notes the same result in reviewing 16 other reports related to similar complaints where "black box" data were available.

In one of those cases, the brake pedal was applied one second before impact. In all others, the brakes were applied after impact or not at all. In the same group, the accelerator was applied before impact in all but one case.

NHTSA concludes the Ruginis crash and the 16 others were due to the driver either pressing the accelerator instead of the brake or pressing both pedals simultaneously.

The agency also cites an analysis by the Highway Safety Research Center of self-reported pedal-error crashes in North Carolina. Such crashes occurred at a rate of more than one per day. When projected nationally, the analysis predicts pedal errors cause about 44 crashes per day in the U.S.