Law and Rights
So, how do you stop a government investigator from investigating your company? Well, one way is to promise them a job or just plain hire them. Did Toyota do that to stall or stop federal investigators from looking too closely at their runaway acceleration car problems in the past? Toyota owners deserve an honest answer.
On Feb. 12th, Bloomberg.com reported that many of the regulators in the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ("NHTSA") who stopped earlier investigations into Toyota problems by the federal agency in charge of recalls ended up being hired by Toyota after they left their government jobs.
Former regulators hired by Toyota Motor Corp. helped end at least four U.S. investigations of unintended acceleration by company vehicles in the last decade, warding off possible recalls, Bloomberg says court and government records show. While all automakers have employees who handle NHTSA issues, Toyota may be the only one of the major companies that also has hired the former safety investigation agency staffers.
Spokesmen for General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co., Chrysler Group LLC and Honda Motor Co. all say their companies have no ex-NHTSA people who deal with the agency on defects.
The recent developments with this Toyota recall mess are astonishing and have to make you wonder just how cozy the recall investigators have been with Toyota. Is this the reason recalls didn't happen before now?
As an example, Bloomberg reports that "Christopher Tinto, vice president of regulatory affairs in Toyota?s Washington office, and Christopher Santucci, who works for Tinto, helped persuade the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to end probes including those of 2002-2003 Toyota Camrys and Solaras, court documents show. Both men joined Toyota directly from NHTSA, Tinto in 1994 and Santucci in 2003.
"NHTSA opened eight investigations of unintended acceleration of Toyota vehicles from 2003 to 2010, according to Safety Research & Strategies Inc., a Rehoboth, Massachusetts, group that gathers data from NHTSA and other sources..."
Foreign accountability is needed to keep Americans safe and it seems to be getting clearer that it has not been happening. Here, it looks like even the government watchdogs weren?t watching.
Read the Bloomberg article here:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aMBS8icm3pyY&pos=5
It all makes you wonder just how long has this been going on? Who knows.
One thing we know for sure though is that if you own one of these recalled Toyota's, it's time to be driving very carefully, if you drive it at all.
If you've got a lemon Toyota, you need a Burdge attorney. Getting rid of lemons is what we do. Every day. Since 1978.
Subscribe in a reader
- Toyota: "we Did Nothing Wrong But We'll Pay $32.4 Million More If The Us Stops Investigating What We Didn't Do"
Toyota has agreed to pay the US another $32,400,000 to shut down the US federal government's safety investigation of its self-acceleration problems and its failure to report the defect to US safety investigators timely. That's on top of the $16.4...
- Federal Safety Investigators Hide Recall Again?
So what did federal safety investigators learn from the public spotlight's glare on their cozy relationship with Toyota? Apparently not much. On Jan. 22, 2010, CF MOTO, the US company that imports Chinese made motorcycles, reported to federal safety...
- Toyota Acceleration Problem Seen By Feds In August 2007
Automotive News is reporting this morning that in August 2007 federal safety investigators at NHTSA, the people in charge of motor vehicle recalls, saw electromagnetic interference cause a Toyota-built engine to rev up on its own. But they decided to...
- Is Toyota Closer To Fixing The Gas Pedal Recall
Maybe. Maybe not. Toyota says they have found a solution and lots of woners are hoping so as they are stuck in neutral waiting to find out for sure. Is your Toyota safe to drive? And what should you do if the uncontrollable acceleration happens to you...
- Toyota Calls Back Thousands Of Prius Cars For Stalling
Got a Prius? Be careful ... On October 13, 2005 Toyota Motor Corp. announced that it was in the process of notifying 75,000 Prius owners in the United States of a software glitch that can cause the hybrid cars to suddenly stall or shut down with little...
Law and Rights
Did Toyota Payoffs Stall the Gas Pedal Recall?
So, how do you stop a government investigator from investigating your company? Well, one way is to promise them a job or just plain hire them. Did Toyota do that to stall or stop federal investigators from looking too closely at their runaway acceleration car problems in the past? Toyota owners deserve an honest answer.
On Feb. 12th, Bloomberg.com reported that many of the regulators in the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ("NHTSA") who stopped earlier investigations into Toyota problems by the federal agency in charge of recalls ended up being hired by Toyota after they left their government jobs.
Former regulators hired by Toyota Motor Corp. helped end at least four U.S. investigations of unintended acceleration by company vehicles in the last decade, warding off possible recalls, Bloomberg says court and government records show. While all automakers have employees who handle NHTSA issues, Toyota may be the only one of the major companies that also has hired the former safety investigation agency staffers.
Spokesmen for General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co., Chrysler Group LLC and Honda Motor Co. all say their companies have no ex-NHTSA people who deal with the agency on defects.
The recent developments with this Toyota recall mess are astonishing and have to make you wonder just how cozy the recall investigators have been with Toyota. Is this the reason recalls didn't happen before now?
As an example, Bloomberg reports that "Christopher Tinto, vice president of regulatory affairs in Toyota?s Washington office, and Christopher Santucci, who works for Tinto, helped persuade the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to end probes including those of 2002-2003 Toyota Camrys and Solaras, court documents show. Both men joined Toyota directly from NHTSA, Tinto in 1994 and Santucci in 2003.
"NHTSA opened eight investigations of unintended acceleration of Toyota vehicles from 2003 to 2010, according to Safety Research & Strategies Inc., a Rehoboth, Massachusetts, group that gathers data from NHTSA and other sources..."
Foreign accountability is needed to keep Americans safe and it seems to be getting clearer that it has not been happening. Here, it looks like even the government watchdogs weren?t watching.
Read the Bloomberg article here:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aMBS8icm3pyY&pos=5
It all makes you wonder just how long has this been going on? Who knows.
One thing we know for sure though is that if you own one of these recalled Toyota's, it's time to be driving very carefully, if you drive it at all.
If you've got a lemon Toyota, you need a Burdge attorney. Getting rid of lemons is what we do. Every day. Since 1978.
Burdge Law Office
www.OhioLemonLaw.com
Because life is to short to drive a lemon.
Subscribe in a reader- Toyota: "we Did Nothing Wrong But We'll Pay $32.4 Million More If The Us Stops Investigating What We Didn't Do"
Toyota has agreed to pay the US another $32,400,000 to shut down the US federal government's safety investigation of its self-acceleration problems and its failure to report the defect to US safety investigators timely. That's on top of the $16.4...
- Federal Safety Investigators Hide Recall Again?
So what did federal safety investigators learn from the public spotlight's glare on their cozy relationship with Toyota? Apparently not much. On Jan. 22, 2010, CF MOTO, the US company that imports Chinese made motorcycles, reported to federal safety...
- Toyota Acceleration Problem Seen By Feds In August 2007
Automotive News is reporting this morning that in August 2007 federal safety investigators at NHTSA, the people in charge of motor vehicle recalls, saw electromagnetic interference cause a Toyota-built engine to rev up on its own. But they decided to...
- Is Toyota Closer To Fixing The Gas Pedal Recall
Maybe. Maybe not. Toyota says they have found a solution and lots of woners are hoping so as they are stuck in neutral waiting to find out for sure. Is your Toyota safe to drive? And what should you do if the uncontrollable acceleration happens to you...
- Toyota Calls Back Thousands Of Prius Cars For Stalling
Got a Prius? Be careful ... On October 13, 2005 Toyota Motor Corp. announced that it was in the process of notifying 75,000 Prius owners in the United States of a software glitch that can cause the hybrid cars to suddenly stall or shut down with little...