Toyota is facing another wrongful death lawsuit. Tyrene Livingston of New York died after her 2007 Toyota Yaris accelerated and crashed on Route 30, according to Market Watch. Now Ms. Livingston's mother has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Toyota Motor Corporation seeking general and punitive damages.
The injury lawyer representing Sandra Livingston, Tyrene Livingston's mother, explained the outline of her complaint:
"The complaint charges that Toyota for years was aware that its vehicles were susceptible to sudden unintended acceleration, leading to fatal accidents... Yet, Toyota never made any significant changes to improve the acceleration and electrical systems of its vehicles, in spite of the availability of several safe and inexpensive modifications."
The Associated Press as quoted by ABC News, adds that in the lawsuit, Ms. Livingston allegedly brought her vehicle into a Toyota dealership just days before her fatal accident. The lawsuit claims that she told the workers at the dealership that there was a problem with her brakes, but they told her that nothing was wrong with her vehicle. Only four days later, Ms. Livingston's car crashed in East Pittsburgh.
In the complaint, the injury lawyer states that Toyota's failure to provide, "mechanical linkage between the accelerator and the engine throttle control, and the brake-to-idle override failsafe... played a direct role in preventing Tyrene from being able to bring her car under control, and ultimately led to her death."
FindLaw explains that the device in question, the ETCS (electronic throttle control system), use to have a backup control system that would allow the driver to manually control the throttle if a problem with the ETCS occurred. However, in 2001, Toyota stop putting the backup piece of equipment in their cars.
Currently, Toyota is facing at least 29 lawsuits over problems with their vehicles, according to FindLaw's Injured.
Related Resources:
- Sudden Acceleration: The Lawsuits Filed Against Toyota (FindLaw's Injured)
- Toyota Accused of Playing Down Toyota Defects in Safety (FindLaw's Injured)
- Toyota Lawsuit Filed Alleging ETCS-i Acceleration Defects (FindLaw's Courtside)
- New York Injury Lawyer Directory (FindLaw)
ShareThis
