Secretary Ray LaHood announced today that Toyota has agreed to pay civil penalties as a result of two independent investigations in the management of the automaker, recalled. He has already paid $ 16 million for a crime earlier this year.
Everyone involved says the FBI on security issues that had discovered the required total amount of fines law.Grand so far: $ 48,800,000.
DOT says Toyota will pay the maximum fines permitted Act - $ 16,400,000 in one case and another $ 16 million - in reply to the Ministry which did not meet the requirements of mobile defects and Motor Vehicle Safety Act security for preparing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
"Safety is our priority and we take our responsibility seriously to protect consumers," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
"Toyota is pleased to decide on these old problems related to the timeliness before the recalls of 2005. All 30 000 members of our team in the United States, and tens of thousands of U.S. retailers and suppliers around the country, have worked very hard over the last few years to put these issues behind, and sets a new standard for responding to our customers, "said Steve S. Angelo.
"These agreements are an opportunity to reverse for a more constructive relationship with NHTSA and focus more on listening to our customers and meet their high expectations for safe and reliable vehicles."
The first study that led to the first fine $ 16300000 Toyota recall involved nearly five million vehicles with pedals that can be captured by the mats.
As in the original remedy, Toyota recalled 55,000 all-weather carpet for September 26, 2007. In August 2009, died in an accident and the officer in charge of the California Highway Patrol and three members of his family outside of San Diego was the result of the pedal nailed to a loan Lexus ES features an all-weather floor mats are destined for another Lexus model.
After the fatal crash, NHTSA said it has reviewed the evidence and other accident data and found that removing the carpet was insufficient and that there was a need to rethink the gas pedal. At the request of NHTSA, Toyota submits to a point for Toyota and Lexus mats capture 3.8 million on 5 October 2009. The recall was extended on January 27 last October to include another 1.1 million vehicles.
In February, the NHTSA has launched an investigation and concluded that Toyota did not notify in due time, giving rise to the fine.
The second study was completed today, ultimately led to 16 million U.S. dollars. In this case, NHTSA said Toyota duly reported to the Agency the lack of security in different models of Toyota, which could cause loss of steering control.
In 2004, Toyota recalled in Japan Hilux truck steering relay rods susceptible to fatigue cracking and breaking when the vehicle losing steering control.
At that time, Toyota has announced that the security flaw NHTSA isolated vehicles in Japan and that the company had not received the same information in the United States.
In 2005, however, Toyota has reported that the lack of direction NHTSA relay rod was active in several models sold in the United States and conducted a recall of nearly one million vehicles.
Then in May, the NHTSA has warned of further information, including complaints by American consumers, Toyota has not revealed when Toyota initially notified NHTSA Recall that the U.S. was not necessary.
In April, Toyota has agreed to pay the maximum fine of $ 16.4 million in response to the claim of the department did not notify the NHTSA in five days of learning the "pedal sticky" by default.
Defects in the pedal pinned to the carpet and "closed" accelerators are currently the only known causes of involuntary acceleration of Toyota vehicles, even if NHTSA will continue to explore other possible causes.
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