Court: Toyota Must Pay at Least $3 Million to Victims

Toyota Lawsuit: In 2007, a Toyota car crash caused by unintended acceleration resulted in the injury of the car’s driver and the death of the passenger. Finally, an Oklahoma jury has come down on the side of the victims, by maintaining that Toyota is guilty of “reckless disregard” with regard to the unintended acceleration and therefore must pay $1.5 million to the injured victim and an additional $1.5 million to the family of the deceased victim. The jury is now considering whether or not Toyota must pay punitive damages to the victims as well.

This verdict is the first against Toyota in a case stemming from the unintended acceleration issue.

Toyota has had a long and rocky road in the civil court system. Plagued with seemingly constant product recalls and product liability cases, Toyota has been named in lawsuits around the country, which claim the behemoth auto-manufacturer is responsible for injuries and deaths due to faulty mechanisms within their vehicles.

In 2010, the issue of unintended acceleration in their cars became so problematic for Toyota that the company halted production and sales of eight vehicle models – Toyota also had to recall nearly 2.3 million cars. In addition to the hit Toyota took to their reputation, they also had to pay out roughly $66 million in fines to the government for various safety violations.

Then, back in 2012, Toyota Motors agreed to pay over $1 billion to settle a class action lawsuit filed by Toyota car owners who claimed they had suffered economic damages because of the unintended acceleration problem in their Toyota vehicles. The settlement payment did not, however, cover personal injuries or deaths due to the unintended acceleration.

This verdict is evidence that even the most powerful companies in the world can be brought to pay for their wrongdoings. Because of the power that the law affords all of us, we need not simply suffer when injured by the misconduct of others, whether we slipped on a floor that should have been dry or whether we were injured in a car because the car manufacturer was negligent in designing or manufacturing the vehicle.

Furthermore, this jury verdict is not the end of Toyota’s problems. Recently, as reported in this NBC News article, Toyota recalled roughly 885,000 vehicles because of problems with the airbag systems in those cars. As Toyota continues to pump affordable vehicles into the marketplace, high sales should not be a license for the company to operate with disregard for the safety of the very individuals who keep the company in business.

If you have been injured in an auto accident due to the fault of another individual or an auto manufacturer, please reach out to us to see how we can help. Contact the Law Offices of Aronberg & Aronberg for a free consultation by calling 561-266-9191 or emailing us at daronberg@build.simple.biz. 

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