US News

Toyota to pay $1.2B settlement in vehicle acceleration lawsuit

The feds reached a $1.2 billion settlement with Toyota Motor Corp. after a four-year criminal probe into the giant Japanese automaker’s handling of a spate of sudden accelerations in its vehicles.

Attorney General Eric Holder, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara announced the settlement Wednesday morning.

“When car owners get behind the wheel, they have a right to expect that their vehicle is safe. If any part of the automobile turns out to have safety issues, the car company has a duty to be upfront about them, to fix them quickly, and to immediately tell the truth about the problem and its scope. Toyota violated that basic compact,” Holder said.

Bharara said the car company put profits over safety.

“In its zeal to stanch bad publicity in 2009 and 2010, Toyota misled regulators, misled customers, and even misstated the facts to Congress,” the prosecutor said.

“The tens of millions of drivers in America have an absolute right to expect that the companies manufacturing their cars are not lying about serious safety issues; are not slow-walking safety fixes; and are not playing games with their lives.”

The investigation focused on whether Toyota was honest in reporting problems related to the unintended-acceleration troubles, which led to multiple accidents and fatalities.

Toyota faces hundreds of lawsuits over the acceleration problems, which gained public attention after the deaths of a California highway patrolman and his family that were reportedly caused by the unintended acceleration of his Lexus, which is made by Toyota.

Starting in 2009, Toyota issued recalls for more than 10 million vehicles for various problems, including faulty brakes, gas pedals and floor mats. From 2010 through 2012, Toyota paid fines totaling more than $66 million for delays in reporting unintended-acceleration problems.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration never found defects in electronics or software in Toyota cars, which had been targeted as a possible cause by many, including some experts.