Atlanta Injury Lawyer Blog

I was right. I wrote in my February 18, 2010 blog entry that I suspected a defect in the Chrysler Sebring caused the car to unexpectedly roll over a child in Fayette County, Georgia. It was reported the key was out of the ignition and the car was in park at the time it ran over the child. Now, the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office confirms my suspicion that it was, indeed, a manufacturing defect in the car that caused the tragic and utterly unnecessary death of this child. The vehicle had a defective ignition park interlock that caused it to slip out of park, roll down a driveway and strike the victim, according to Capt. Brian Eubanks of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office.

My heart goes out to this family. One more death at the hand of a car manufacturer is one too many.

Finally! Toyota apologizes to the American public for selling us dangerous cars and keeping it secret from us when Toyota KNEW they were accidents looking for a place to happen.Yet Toyota still has yet to come 100% clean, in denying anything is wrong with their cars’ electronic throttle system, when all evidence points to the contrary.

Added to the misery created by Toyota’s cavalier conduct is the revelation that there may be some Americans wrongly convicted of vehicular homicide when their runaway Toyotas killed someone. This issue has arisen in Minnesota, where Koua Fong Lee is serving an eight year prison sentence for vehicular homicide in 2006 when his 1996 Toyota careened out of control and he was unable to stop it. With this late confession by Toyota executives about their out-of-control cars, it may be that Mr. Lee was wrongfully convicted and that it is Toyota, not poor Mr. Lee, that is responsible for the Minnesota deaths.

Things that make you go hmmmmm…another episode of Corporate Malfeasance, and it will be left to the trial lawyers of America to seek any justice for Toyota’s victims.

This was a terrible headline to read today, that a child was killed in Fayetteville, Georgia when a car rolled over him. The car, a Chrysler Sebring, apparently rolled over him even though the car was in park and no key was in the ignition at the time. Sounds like another car manufacturing defect to me.

Child Killed By Rolling Car

Posted: 7:41 am EST February 18, 2010

It was bad enough that Toyota had recalled hundreds of thousands of newer models of their best-selling Camry and the Corolla and Tundra and certain Lexus models for sudden uncontrolled accelleration. That recall, blamed by Toyota executives as being caused by defective rubber floormats, affected 3.8 million vehicles that contained certain all-weather floor mats. Then Toyota issued another recall for 2.3 million Toyota vehicles, including 600,000 that were not subject to the prior floor mat recall due to an actual mechanical problem that was causing some gas pedals to stick. Which begs the question: was the TRUE problem with the first 3.8 million cars really to blame on the floor mat? Or was this a convenient excuse for what was really an accellerator problem from the get-go? Knowing Toyota Execs, count on the latter.

But now, in the MackDaddy of all Recalls, Toyota has recalled its Star of the Show, the Prius, Toyota said Tuesday it would recall 437,000 of its 2010 flagship Prius hybrid and other gas-electric models worldwide to fix a glitch in the braking system, as the Japanese automaker moved to contain a crisis over defects in a range of its vehicles. Toyota says its only a software problem, which may be true, but are we to trust them?

I have found myself in the last couple of weeks avoiding driving near or around Toyotas on the street. I will switch lanes rather than dare be behind one. I do not own a Toyota, but I can imagine Toyota owners faced with the moral dilemma: “Do I drive my Camry to work and risk killing myself, a loved one or another person? Or do I put it in the garage, continue to make monthly payments on a car I cannot drive and try to find alternate transportation?” Toyota, you’ve got some explaining to do!