Accelerator defect! Well, watch out giving this excuse to the US federal courts now. Yeah! Because there has been an interesting development on the ’06 car crash related case that proved fatal. On Friday, the court had reached a decision and it was, to the astonishment of many, against the winds and the court decided to go slightly in favor of the victims of the crash saying that Toyota Motor Corp will pay an amount of $11 million. This case has been in the news for quite some time now as the incident occurred some 11 years ago in Minnesota, USA. The court made the judgment that the accident’s primary cause was the defect in the accelerator.
A US federal court panel comprising of three judges further stated that although in their opinion the driver should be blamed for the accident, although 60% of the problem was with the defective accelerator of the 1996 Camry. The panel on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals subtly stated that the jury from Minnesota had ample evidence and in the year 2015 to come to the verdict that this tragic incident happened due to the fault of both the driver and the manufacturer of the car. They stated that Mr. Lee was only 40% liable for the incident yet he was sentenced and was sent to prison but Toyota Motor Corp is 60% liable.
Robert Hilliard, Mr. Lee’s lawyer, presented the argument that his client spent nearly three years in prison for a crime which he hadn’t committed. He further stated that he was released only when there were several reports of unintended acceleration in the vehicles from the same manufacturers. The reason for his release was the motion that he won in 2010.
The auto in the mishap was not secured by Toyota’s review of more than 10 million vehicles in the vicinity of 2009 and 2010 over increasing speed issues. Hilliard stated after the decision that he was not only grateful to the 8th Circuit but also relieved for the family of his client. The other side of the story is pretty daunting as well as the manufacturers of the car are still firmly claiming that the vehicle which was driven by Mr. Lee was completely fine and well designed. They also said that as the court has made its decision so they will respect it.
Unfortunately, the lawyer for the other injured people of the incident was unavailable for a comment but it is quite clear that the trial basically stemmed from the lawsuit which was filed mainly on behalf of the injured or deceased passengers. Mr. Lee had, later on, joined the lawsuit and repeatedly stated that it was completely unintentional and he felt extremely sorry for the family he crashed into. Having made the verdict, the 8th Circuit stated that improper calculations were made for the damages for the mother of those children in that vehicle and recalculations were ordered.
