Early Tests On Accidental Toyota Cars Pin Cause To Driver Mistakes

An article on The Wall Street Journal has cited people familiar with the matter as saying that analysis done by the US Department of Transportation on data recorders from Toyota Motor Corp (NYSE: TM) vehicles has indicated that throttles of some of the vehicles were wide open and brakes were not engaged. These early results have suggested that some drivers, who claimed that their Toyotas and Lexuses went out of control, were mistakenly pushing the accelerator instead of the brakes.

The findings, which are part of an ongoing federal investigation into Toyota's recalls, do not absolve the car maker from two known issues, "sticky" accelerator pedals that fail to return to the idle position and floor mats that can trap accelerators to the floor.

The findings made by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) involved a sample of reports in which a driver of a Toyota vehicle claimed that his car failed to stop and ended in a crash, even though the brakes were depressed.

The findings are consistent with a government-sponsored study conducted in 1989 on similar sudden-acceleration involving Audi 5000 sedans.

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