[瓦爾特]

Our view on car safety: Toyota, regulators slow to act on accelerating autos
Giant carmaker repeatedly did too little, too late to address problems.

Last August as a Lexus ES 350 careened out of control near San Diego, one of its occupants dialed 911. "Our accelerator is stuck," he told the emergency operator. "There's no brakes ... Pray. Pray."

Seconds later, the car crashed, killing the driver, off-duty California Highway Patrol officer Mark Saylor; his wife; daughter and brother-in-law. The car, part of Toyota's flagship luxury brand, was on loan from a dealer, and a previous driver had reported that he'd had a problem when a floor mat entrapped the gas pedal.

When the 911 tape was broadcast on TV and made rounds on the Internet, the accident appeared to be an isolated incident — not enough to negate the reputation for quality and safety that Lexus parent Toyota had built over decades.

Not any more. In the past few weeks, acceleration and braking problems have been exposed in several Toyota vehicles. Worse, it has become clear that Toyota knew about acceleration problems for years — as did federal regulators — but did precious little either to correct those problems or to warn its customers. Now, with Congress poised to hold hearings next week into the Japanese auto giant's problems, Toyota looks less like an icon of reliability than a company that lost its way, endangering its brand along with the people who bought its cars.

More than 1,000 Toyota and Lexus owners have reported to federal regulators since 2001 cases of cars that suddenly accelerated and slammed into obstacles — including 15 fatal crashes. Toyota surely was told of more.

Toyota has quietly settled lawsuits for years — allowing it to avoid unwanted publicity — with owners who said their vehicles raced out of control, according to an investigation by the Los Angeles Times.

In 2007, insurer State Farm notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that it was seeing a trend of increasing sudden acceleration cases in Toyota vehicles, USA TODAY reported this month.

Toyota's most recent recalls came only after top NHTSA officials — belatedly acting on long-known complaints — took the extraordinary step of flying to Japan to educate Toyota about its obligations under U.S. law. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently called Toyota "a little safety deaf."

The company, which could have saved its reputation simply by acting on the principles it has long espoused, is scrambling to recover. It has recalled 7.7 million vehicles globally and now promises to fix its "sticking gas pedals" and its floor-mat problems. But every new piece of information that emerges about Toyota's handling of the problem raises new doubts about its credibility.

Auto safety advocates also question whether sudden acceleration may have a different, more ominous cause: the advanced electronic systems now used by many automakers to control gas pedals. Cases of sudden acceleration are not unique to Toyota.

Still another area of concern is regulatory failure. NHTSA failed even to notice the trend evident in its own database until it was discovered by the L.A. Times. It repeatedly declined to fully probe sudden acceleration.

Much remains to be learned as the hearings get underway. But of this there's no doubt: The system of safety-conscious carmakers, backed by aggressive federal regulators, broke down with Toyota.

Consumers shouldn't have to wonder whether their car will take off on its own each time they get behind the wheel. And they certainly shouldn't have to pray, as the Saylors did, that it will stop.