According to Shanita Akintonde, the lack of a brake override is what caused the 2006 Toyota Rav4 she had been riding to accelerate out of control and crash into a Borders bookstore. The woman is seeking sudden unintended acceleration damages from the automaker and three of its subsidiaries.
The motor vehicle crash happened on March 21, 2009. Witnesses say that Akintonde’s vehicle started speeding very fast and then went on to strike a median, fly into the air and smash into the store where it ended up bursting into flames.
Akintonde was quickly rescued by bystanders, who cut off her seat belt and pulled her out before the car was completely covered by the blaze. In addition to falling into a coma, she broke an arm, her wrist, and her legs and underwent at least 10 surgeries and intense physical therapy so she could again perform simple tasks.
It was just a few years ago that Toyota recalled close to 8 million autos, including more than 1.3 million Rav 4 SUVs in the US, over sudden intended acceleration problems. Akintonde believes that the automaker’s stance that “sticky” gas pedals and faulty floor mats are what may have caused the vehicles to accelerate out of control is not the whole picture. She believes that a lack of a brake override system is the actual problem and one that the automaker has been concealing. In her Toyota sudden acceleration lawsuit, Akintonde talks about how having this type of smart-throttle technology system in her vehicle has been known to reduce the chances that a car might speed up suddenly for no apparent reason. The plaintiff is alleging breach of warranty, product liability, failure to warn, fraudulent concealment, and negligence.
Toyota Sudden Unintended Acceleration Cases
As you can see, even as it seeks to restore its image as a leading maker
of safe cars, Toyota continues to deal with auto defects causes brought
about by the slew of injuries and deaths that were linked to sudden unintended
acceleration.
Proving what caused a car to accelerate out of control can be challenging. It is important that you work with an auto products liability law firm that has the knowledge, experience, resources, and technology to figure out the exact cause of your crash. Also, anytime one is in a serious collision the injuries that arise can be debilitating, painful, costly, and life-altering. You want to make sure that all of this, and their related costs—both current and future expenses—are taken into consideration when seeking damages from the parties responsible for your collision.
The fact that large automakers generally have the resources, manpower, and funds to combat litigation blaming them for causing a collision is one more reason why you need solid legal representation standing by you. Deciding on which Toyota sudden unintended acceleration law firm you want to represent you is a big decision. While the idea of legal costs may seem intimidating, your legal team should only charge you for their services if you recover compensation and only from what you get back.
