The Great Toyota Persecution

Toyota. The indispensable Michael Fumento has posted his forthcoming Forbes column at his Web site. His survey of the database at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows that it is a undigested lump of unevaluated complaints:

“ Anybody can enter anything . An entry filed by someone named “Damnable Liar” claimed his car accelerated to the moon because of a child seat problem. That was mine. Many “complaints” are merely comments, and since NHTSA has no “sudden acceleration” category but rather uses “speed control,” the sudden-acceleration claims are lumped in with entries regarding vehicle sluggishness. But in the media conversion process they all become runaway Toyotas.

"After the frenzy began, seven entries comprising ten deaths, originally blamed on other aspects of the cars, were refiled as unintended acceleration. Many simply deduce that since investigators found no cause other than driver error, then the accelerator must be responsible. Or they make the illogical deduction that since the brakes weren’t applied, it was sudden acceleration.

"One entry concerns Joseph Mele, whom court records say last August crashed into a guard rail at over 100mph while driving a Toyota Scion. His best friend was trapped and burned alive. Witnesses testified he’d been smoking pot and was plastered, and a police officer testified he smelled strongly of booze. He’s awaiting trial, charged with, among other crimes, vehicular homicide while driving under the influence of alcohol (something the Los Angeles Times, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for its Toyota coverage, failed to mention in a February story)."

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