ToMoCo Avoids Acceleration Lawsuits: Because People Can't Drive

. While there are exceptions to any rule, most Toyota drivers fall easily into the "my shitty driving means I am a great driver" category. And it is why ineptitude was generally the cause of the accidents related to Toyota's major recalls. If your accelerator pedal is stuck down, maybe put the car in neutral, or turn it off? Unfortunately for all involved, this was beyond the capabilities of most Toyota drivers (though I am sure this was not true in all cases, and I feel for anyone who was injured or especially killed in these crashes, just as all crashes - there are often elements of mechanical and human error - my point is more that limiting human error can often, but certainly not always, mitigate the risks of mechanical error).

The net result is that juries, one by one, are discarding lawsuits made against ToMoCo.


Now, there are some cases where Toyota knew and intentionally kept selling a faulty product, and for that they should be forced to pay damages. But there are a lot of these lawsuits where the driver simply had no idea what they were doing and then, when everything went badly, they wanted to blame someone else.

Lets be clear on this - if a company manufactures a defective product (especially knowingly), they should be liable. But if you misuse a product, you are at fault. And in the case of cars, most accidents are because people do not know how to drive well, do not know how to react, or are simply not paying attention (or are incapable of doing so - such as being drunk).