Posted by: Salvatore J. Zambri, founding partner
The Los Angeles Times reports that House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, speaking at his committee’s hearing into the cause of Toyota’s sudden acceleration crisis, said that the automaker “still had not done the testing required to determine the cause…and had been more concerned about its image than addressing the issue.” This remark was in response to Toyota’s statement that it was confident electronics were not causing sudden acceleration. Waxman, however, “said that his panel’s investigation had raised serious questions about the scope of Toyota’s efforts” to root out an electronic fault.
According to the report, Waxman stated, “Toyota has repeatedly told the public that it has conducted extensive testing of its vehicles for electronic defects. We can find no basis for these assertions.” The Washington Post notes that Toyota has “assured worried customers and Congress that it was conducting an independent investigation,” but yesterday, “congressional investigators said the company that Toyota has hired to do the review, Exponent, had offered no written plan for the project or any written specifications for the experiments it intends to run.” The Post reports that Waxman called the investigation “deeply troubling,” and rejected Exponent’s explanation of a lack of a written plan “preposterous.”
I hope Toyota and its agents are genuinely interested in determining all potential defects. If their principal focus is avoid accountability, then consumers will be endangered more. I’ll keep a close eye on the hearings as they continue.
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About the author:
Mr. Zambri is a Past-President of the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, D.C. and has been rated by Washingtonian magazine as a “Big Gun” and among the “top 1%” of all lawyers in the Washington metropolitan area. The magazine also describes him as “one of Washington’s best–most honest and effective lawyers” who specializes in personal injury matters, including serious truck and car collisions. Mr. Zambri has also been repeatedly named a “Super Lawyer” by Law and Politics magazine–a national publication that honors the top lawyers in America.
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