Toyota agrees to pay $16.4 million fine, regulators say

WASHINGTON — Toyota
will accept responsibility for hiding safety defects related to sudden
acceleration in 2.3 million vehicles and agree to pay a record $16.4 million fine, federal safety regulators said late Sunday.

Toyota failed to
notify the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for at least
four months after learning that the accelerator pedals in some of its
vehicles could stick and cause unwanted acceleration, regulators say.
Under federal law, automakers are required to disclose defects within
five business days.

NHTSA announced that it would seek the voluntary fine April 5. Final details of the written agreement with Toyota were still unresolved Sunday night, although the agency said it expected Toyota to pay the maximum amount allowed under law.

“By paying the full civil penalty, Toyota
is accepting responsibility for hiding safety defects from NHTSA in
violation of the law,” a senior Transportation Department official said.

Toyota officials could not be reached for comment late Sunday.

Toyota was given until
Monday to pay the fine or contest it and fight the penalty with the
Justice Department. Even as late as Sunday night, it was not clear
whether the written agreement that governs the fine would include an
admission by Toyota that it violated the law.

Such an admission would be important because Toyota
faces scores of personal injury and class action suits, alleging safety
defects in its vehicles that have caused crashes, injuries and
fatalities.

Even if Toyota does not formally admit guilt, federal officials said that the sizable fine indicated that the automaker broke the law.

Plaintiff attorneys have said they plan to use the fine as evidence in litigation.

The Japanese automaker issued a recall for the
sticky pedal problem in late January, acknowledging that the
accelerator pedal assembly on some models could fail to return to idle
position in certain circumstances.

Several months prior to that, Toyota
announced its largest-ever recall to address the risk that floor mats
in some models could entrap the gas pedal and cause unwanted
acceleration. That recall now includes 5.4 million vehicles. In
addition, Toyota has
launched recalls of several other models for safety issues related to
braking and rust in recent months. In total, the automaker has issued
roughly 10.5 million recall notices worldwide in the past seven months.

Toyota sent
instructions to its European operations last September that explained
how to fix accelerator pedals that could stick, but decided not to
similarly notify U.S. dealers and government regulators, according to
an April 5 letter from NHTSA attorneys to Toyota.

The NHTSA letter indicated that Toyota may have known about the defect for at least three years.

It was not until Jan. 19 that Toyota notified NHTSA about the defect and then two days later issued its massive recall. Five days later, Toyota halted sales and production of eight models because of the defect.

NHTSA said in its April 5 letter that
it may seek additional fines related to the sticky pedal recall.
Meanwhile, the agency has acknowledged it is investigating a range of
other Toyota disclosure practices that may have violated federal law and could result in further fines.

To date, the largest federal penalty against an automaker was $1 million, issued to General Motors in 2004 for delaying a windshield wiper recall.

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