The wrong kind of Toyotathon: the unintended consequences of an unintended acceleration panic.

• Author: Bailey, Ronald
• Position: Columns - Column

TALES OF RUNAWAY cars have a long history. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducted its first study of sudden acceleration in 1978. By 1987 it was investigating sudden acceleration in more than 10 million vehicles, including models made by Ford, GM, Chrysler, Nissan, Toyota, Honda, Volvo, and Audi. The Center for Auto Safety, a Naderite group closely associated with plaintiffs' attorneys, claimed sudden acceleration had resulted in more than 2,000 accidents, at least 650 injuries, and 23 fatalities among the car models under investigation.

Twenty-five years ago, fears of sudden acceleration focused on the Audi 5000. At the time, most experts concluded that the drivers were mistakenly pushing the accelerator when they thought they were applying the brakes. Not surprisingly, pushing an accelerator accelerates a car. But in November 1986, 60 Minutes featured a mom who had run over her kid in her Audi. To illustrate the Audi menace, the CBS program showed an Audi--which had been rigged with a hidden canister of compressed air--lurching out of control. By 1989 Audi was a plaintiff in 120 sudden acceleration lawsuits claiming damages totaling to $5 billion.

In January of that year, the Canadian government issued a report attributing sudden acceleration to "driver error." Two months later, a NHTSA report blamed "pedal misapplication," a euphemism for driver error. CBS asserted that it did not need to correct its reporting, dismissing the NHTSA report as "an opinion." The Audi episode spurred most automakers to install brake transmission interlock devices, which require drivers to step on the brake when shifting gears out of park. Reports of unintended acceleration declined shortly thereafter, bolstering the contention that most incidents involved driver mistakes.

Now we have out-of-control Toyotas. The NHTSA has received reports linking 52 deaths and 38 injuries since 2000 to sudden unintended acceleration of Toyota vehicles. Last fall the company recalled millions of cars to reconfigure their gas pedals to prevent them from being trapped beneath floor mats. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood further stoked public anxiety when he testified at a congressional hearing in February, "My advice is, if anybody owns one of these vehicles, stop driving it, take it to the Toyota dealer because they believe they have the fix for it" LaHood quickly withdrew his remark, saying that he had "obviously misspoken" and that he merely...