Toyota Motor Corp. wasn’t responsible for causing a doctor’s 2005 Scion to suddenly accelerate and smash into a tree, a federal jury ruled today.
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The accident was caused by the driver, Amir Sitafalwalla, rather than the brake or the floor mat, said a lawyer for Toyota, John Randolph Bibb, in his closing statement today. Sitafalwalla “made a mistake in the operation of his 2005 Scion TC,” Bibb told jurors. “He made a simple but unfortunate mistake.”
The jury deliberated for less than an hour.
“It was all about how the mat came into play and obviously it didn’t,” juror Penny Overbeck, 38, of Center Moriches, N.Y., said after the verdict. She said her vote was also influenced by “all the testing Toyota did. They had it all on video. It pretty much explained it.”
Sitafalwalla, a Long Island, N.Y., doctor who filed his lawsuit in 2008, had the first case related to the issue to go to trial since Toyota’s recall crisis. Sitafalwalla had argued the accident was caused by defects in either the electronic throttle system or the floor mats. On Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge E. Thomas Boyle, presiding over the trial, ruled out evidence on the electronics.
Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, recalled more than 20 million vehicles worldwide starting in November 2009, for defects that included unintended acceleration.
Floor mat
Due to its design, “it’s just not physically possible” for the Scion TC’s floor mat “to entrap the accelerator pedal,” said Bibb, of Nashville, Tenn.
“We weighed all the evidence and came to the conclusion that there was not a defect with the automobile,” said Regina Desio of Plainview, N.Y., the jury forewoman. She declined to give her age.
Albert Zafonte Jr., a lawyer for Sitafalwalla, said he was “disappointed in the verdict. I thought there was sufficient evidence for the jury to find otherwise.” Both he and co-counsel George Statfeld said they would have to consider whether to appeal.
Zafonte said in his closing statement that a defect in the design and distribution of the mat system caused the accident. The design allowed the mat to shift onto the accelerator pedal, Zafonte said.
Toyota also failed to install a brake-override system that would have prevented the accident and was available on the 2005 Prius, he said. The jury found Toyota wasn’t liable for product liability concerning either the mat or the absence of a brake-override system.
More lawsuits
Toyota is facing hundreds of lawsuits claiming lost vehicle value or personal injuries caused by incidents of unintended acceleration. Sitafalwalla claimed the automaker knew its vehicles could unintentionally speed up, leaving drivers at risk for accidents and injuries.
Sitafalwalla, an emergency room physician, was injured in the October 2005 accident in the driveway of his Port Washington, N.Y., home.
Most federal cases claiming economic loss or injuries related to unintended acceleration are combined in a case pending in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, Calif.
