LaHood tells owners of recalled Toyota cars to stop driving them

WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Wednesday advised drivers of Toyota vehicles recalled because of sudden acceleration problems to stop driving them and take them to a dealer for repairs.

His comments to a congressional committee reviewing
the agency’s proposed 2011 budget came after LaHood told reporters that
U.S. officials would look into complaints about problems with brakes on
Toyota’s popular Prius hybrid sedan after reports that Japan’s government has asked the company to investigate the issue.

LaHood also strongly defended the actions of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which reports to him, in the investigation of sudden acceleration due to gas pedal problems in several models made by Toyota that has led to a massive recall by the company.

LaHood’s recommendation that drivers park vehicles
subject to the recall until the autos are fixed “sounds hysterical and
will cause hysteria, but to some extent we are such a litigious
society, he has no choice but to say that because of the lawsuits that
are lined up,” said Rebecca Lindland, director of the autos group for IHS Global Insight, an economic forecasting firm in Lexington, Mass. “If one more person is killed, they can say that the government didn’t act; Toyota did not act.”

Toyota’s stock dropped sharply Wednesday after LaHood gave his advice.

Bill Adams, a Transportation Department spokesman, tried to clarify the comments.

“The DOT is advising owners of recalled vehicles to
contact their local dealerships to arrange for fixes as soon as
possible,” he said.

In Japan, the Transport Ministry
said it has received 14 complaints about the brakes on the
new-generation Prius, which was introduced last year. The agency said
it is looking into the complaints but did not know whether there was a
genuine problem.

Complaints about Prius brakes in Japan
and the U.S. could be an issue with people’s unfamiliarity with the
feel of some hybrid braking systems, which take the energy from braking
and cycle it back into the drivetrain, Lindland said.

The growing issue over sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles and the massive recall might have sensitized consumers to anything unusual in the cars, she said.

“We are in a bit of a chaotic mode right now. Brakes
do feel differently in a hybrid because of the regeneration process.
People need to recognize that these brakes sometimes feel different.
The unintended acceleration is a much greater issue,” Lindland said.

On Tuesday, Apple Inc. co-founder Steve “Woz” Wozniak said he was surprised several months ago when his 2010 Prius started
accelerating on its own to as many as 97 mph when he used cruise
control to increase the vehicle’s speed. He said he had to tap the
brakes to stop the car from accelerating.

Other consumers have complained about the same
issue, Lindland said, and it could be a result of the differences in
the way speed in Toyota’s cruise control system in hybrid vehicles are set compared with similar systems in conventional vehicles.

As for the current recall, LaHood said government
officials acted quickly and forcefully. During a breakfast with
reporters here Wednesday sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor,
LaHood’s staff distributed a 2 1/2 -page handout that included a
timeline of actions by the NHTSA since March 2007 on the issue.

Despite eight investigations by NHTSA dating to 2003 of sudden acceleration in Toyota and Lexus vehicles, the problem continued through last year until the large-scale recall began.

“The recalls involving pedal entrapment and possible sticky gas pedals on Toyota vehicles are some of the largest in automobile history. Every step of the way, NHTSA … officials pushed Toyota
to take corrective action so that consumers would be safe,” LaHood said
in a short written statement before answering questions. “Today, Toyota is apparently taking the right steps to address these safety issues. Unfortunately it took much effort to get to this point.”

Those efforts include NHTSA officials flying to Japan in December for personal meetings “to clarify for Toyota management what the company’s legal obligations are to find and remedy safety defects” and a meeting at the U.S. Transportation Department’s Washington headquarters last month with Toyota’s North American president, Yoshi Inaba, in which “NHTSA indicated in no uncertain terms that we expected prompt action” on the acceleration issue, LaHood said.

He said consumers “can rest assured that NHTSA will closely monitor implementation of the recall.”

“NHTSA is one of the Department of Transportation’s
leading safety agency and its people have been diligent and dogged in
carrying out their responsibility,” LaHood said. “NHTSA is not finished
with this safety matter concerning Toyota.
NHTSA will continue to monitor the gas pedal issue and look for any
additional safety defects that may be causing unintended acceleration
in Toyota vehicles.”

LaHood said he intended to speak directly with Toyota President Akio Toyoda “very soon” to make sure the company gets the message from the U.S.
government that the company needs to take aggressive action to resolve
the sudden acceleration problems.

“I think they’re pretty close to getting it, and the
reason I’m going to talk to Mr. Toyoda is I think after I talk to him,
I think they’ll get it. This is serious. This is very serious,” LaHood
said. Toyota is doing everything now to correct the problem, he added, “but we’re going to keep the pressure on them.”

Asked whether NHTSA did enough to address the issue
in 2007 and 2008, which was before LaHood took office in early 2009, he
said his review found the agency did.

“I’m not going to lay any blame or credit off on
anybody else. I’m the secretary of Transportation. If there’s credit,
I’ll take it; if there’s blame, I’ll take it. I’m not going to lay it
off on anybody else. But I think our NHTSA people stepped up here,
alerted the public, talked to Toyota, held Toyota’s feet to the fire and that’s why we’re where we’re at today.”

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