Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

SUN EDITORIAL:

An agency’s serious failure

Federal regulators knew about Toyota’s problems but let them go for years

George Yago Jr. and his wife, Maureen, were killed in 2004 after their car crashed through the fourth-floor wall of the Golden Nugget’s parking garage and plunged over the side. Why the car crashed is a mystery.

As Steve Kanigher reported in Sunday’s Las Vegas Sun, the coroner thought the 83-year-old driver might have had a stroke, but the autopsy was inconclusive. Investigators wondered if he had accidentally hit the wrong pedal, but witnesses saw the car’s brake lights come on as it pulled into a space. One witness said the car made a complete stop.

The couple’s son, George Yago III, now wonders if it was the car. The couple were driving a 2002 Toyota Camry, and last year the carmaker faced a rash of complaints about its cars suddenly accelerating on their own. In 2004, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration looked into the issue but largely dismissed the complaints after Toyota said it had done a “thorough investigation” and couldn’t find a problem. Agreeing with the automaker, the highway administration said applying the brake should resolve any problem with sudden acceleration.

Since then, the nation has learned that’s not necessarily the case — there have been dozens of deaths and injuries attributed to the problem of runaway Toyotas, including those whose drivers applied the brake. The agency took action only after a wave of outrage last year, and Toyota has recalled more than 8 million vehicles.

It shouldn’t have taken that long to address the problem. The highway administration had plenty of information about problems with Toyotas in 2004. Two members of Congress have called the agency’s initial review seriously flawed, and that is putting it mildly.

As Kanigher reported, a Metro detective investigating the Yagos’ crash contacted highway administration investigators, who told him there had been “numerous complaints” about 2002 and 2003 Camrys. A month before the Yagos’ crash, one of the agency’s investigators suggested in an internal memo there was a “reasonable probability” that the Camrys’ “throttle system may have a defect that could result in an (unintended acceleration),” noting that two Toyota service bulletins had warned of possible “engine surging” in the vehicles.

The investigator noted that most of the incidents happened when the vehicles were driving at slow speeds in places like parking lots. Another agency investigator said that in some situations — like when parking — the unintended acceleration could result in a crash because the driver wouldn’t have time to use the brakes.

However, the investigators never inspected the Yagos’ Camry, even though they were given the opportunity by the family’s lawyer. Instead, the highway administration minimized the scope of its inquiry into Toyota’s problem and tried to close the book on the issue.

The agency failed to do its job, and it put the American public needlessly at risk for years. Had the agency vigorously pursued the issue, it might have prevented many crashes and injuries. But safety advocates say the agency has neither the staffing it needs, nor the expertise to handle the increasingly sophisticated onboard computer systems.

That needs to change. Congress should make sure the agency has what it needs and hold it accountable to do its job.

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