You can rest easy now: NHTSA says it has purchased the 2007 Lexus ES 350 once owned by Rhonda Smith and will evaluate it at its test center in East Liberty, Ohio. No word on how much the second owners were paid for their Lexus, but the ES reportedly has about 30,000 miles on its odometer.
Meanwhile, over on Capitol Hill, U.S. Representative Edolphus Towns, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter to Toyota North America President Yoshimi Inaba today, laying into the big automaker for its "systematic disregard for the law and routine violation of court discovery orders in litigation."
This didn't have a thing to do with alleged unintended acceleration incidents. Rather, Towns had just finished poring over internal Toyota documents related to rollover crash litigation.
"People injured in crashes involving Toyota vehicles may have been injured a second time when Toyota failed to produce relevant evidence in court," he wrote. "This also raises very serious questions as to whether Toyota has also withheld substantial, relevant information from NHTSA."
Finally, from Pittsburgh, a Carnegie Mellon Professor, Paul Fischbeck, says that driving a Toyota or Lexus with a potentially sticking throttle increases your risk of death by only 2 percent. Walking a mile, Fischbeck says, is 19 times more dangerous than driving a mile in a recalled Toyota.
"There hasn't been a discussion about the actual risk of driving one of Toyota's recalled vehicles," he says in a Carnegie Mellon press release. "Even the messages from the Transportation Secretary have been confusing. First, it's a recommendation not to drive the cars in question at all. Then, that was retracted. I think it's important for people to realize that when you look at the actual risk of driving one of these cars, it's actually very low."
You can read the full press release here and, for further enlightenment and encouragement, visit Fischbeck's Death Risk Rankings Web site.
You can read Rep. Towns' letter to Inaba here.
breif says:
02:41 PM, 02/26/10
Anyone else tired of this story yet?
brn says:
02:49 PM, 02/26/10
Mr. Fischbeck got his name in lights. Can he go away now?
andrew20 says:
03:06 PM, 02/26/10
America at its best - I should say these people at high places are doing extremely well in using the situation to get rid of one of some mighty companies that have ruined the big three.
As for the ES350, may Rhonda Smith be damned for telling lies.
dg0472 says:
03:12 PM, 02/26/10
Well at least they're lumping everything together in one daily article now. And I'm sure Fischbeck is only going to be a brief footnote in this.
sabastian says:
08:12 PM, 02/26/10
Driving a recalled Toyota is safer than walking? Obviously. If you are walking, you could be hit by a runaway Toyota.
Sorry. Couldn't resist.
estreka says:
05:59 AM, 02/27/10
lol @ Sebastian
And of course Toyota hid evidence in other cases. A corporation is a person, and in the US, every person has the right to plead the fifth. You don't have to incriminate yourself. That's the prosecution's job.
DLu says:
09:37 AM, 02/27/10
Seriously, as bad as the screw-ups that Toyota made are, can we not be so ADHD and remember that far more people are still suffering in Haiti? Cars are machines made by people, and people make mistakes. It's stupid to assume that a car will be "safe" and not break. Toyota needs to fix their screw-ups. Let's move on.
DLu says:
09:42 AM, 02/27/10
Prof Fischbeck did demonstrate that statistics can prove whatever point you want.
kingfish4 says:
11:54 AM, 02/27/10
andrew20
Perhaps you should read the letter sent to Toyota. Mr. Biller outlines and has documention of some very serious issue concerning Toyota's lack of accountability. All of these deeds took place before bankruptcy was even in the vocabulary of the Big 3.
I, for one, would like to have a gander at the Toyota Book Of Knowledge, just to see what else they are hiding.
notabigdeal says:
12:27 PM, 02/27/10
I'm sick of this too... I'm sure if you subpoenaed every document GM had you'd dig up a lot of shit too. I don't really care I don't like anything in toyota's offering anyway...
billt9 says:
07:50 AM, 02/28/10
If only Toyota made pretty cars like Ferrari, which virtually first year every car in their lineup suffered from engine fires... nobody would care, cuz they're damn hot cars.
hollowtek says:
04:51 PM, 02/28/10
Having a major in the field of sports medicine has taught me many times how dangerous it is to walk these days. It has nothing to do with a runaway Toyota. I have been close to getting hit countless times while jogging half a mile to the gym from my house! My most recent near death experience was just months ago involving an older, unmaintained commercial truck with no tread left on his tires. He was going too fast on a sharp curve which caused him to swerve onto the sidewalk, where I would be roadkill now if I had not jumped out of the way. This can happen with any car, and to any person. I can honestly tell everyone here that I don't feel safe walking outside anymore, let alone any of my loved ones. After watching over a dozen people get hit by a car, 5 of which dying less than 30 feet away from me (one of which right died in front of my house), and not one of those drivers ever considering to pull over... Just one ****ed up world.
hollowtek says:
10:34 AM, 03/ 1/10
In addition to my above post, by cruel coincidence, yesterday a local man was ran over by not one, but two cars. Apparently the driver of the first car was speeding too fast to slow down in time for a light. The man was thrown to the other side of the lane where he wa hit by yet another car, who witnesses claim was also speeding. Neither of the cars were witnessed to slow down as they continued to flee the scene. Again let me reiterate: it's the driver, not the car.