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Toyota Blameless in Sudden Acceleration Lawsuit
A California jury has cleared Toyota Motor Corp. of any liability for the death of a woman killed when her 2006 Toyota Camry crashed after allegedly accelerating spontaneously.
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A California jury has cleared Toyota Motor Corp. of any liability for the death of a woman killed when her 2006 Toyota Camry crashed after allegedly accelerating spontaneously.
The woman's husband brought a wrongful death suit against the company, claiming the car should have been equipped with a brake override system to help the drive stop it.
But Toyota said the driver never attempted to brake. The company argued that she was stunned before the crash when another vehicle hit her car, after which she sped off in the wrong direction on a one-way road, then crashed into a tree.
The jury fixed all blame for the death on the pilot of the other car and said that driver should pay $10 million in damages.
Toyota has won two other jury trials related to alleged sudden-acceleration issues. The company estimates it faces more than 500 individual and 200 proposed class-action lawsuits over similar claims.
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