Filed under: Safety, Autoline on Autoblog
It took ten months. It involved the best brains in the nation. They conducted exhaustive tests. And Lord knows what it all cost. But when it was over, the results were totally predictable. The U.S. Department of Transportation could find nothing wrong with Toyota vehicles that would cause them to suddenly accelerate out of control.
The results were predictable because the country went through the same thing nearly a quarter of a century ago. Only then, it involved Audi. And in both of these cases, each car company was accused of having some sort of mysterious gremlin that would cause its cars to suddenly accelerate out of control.
But there is a significant difference between both investigations. Back then the Department of Transportation blamed it on driver error. Officially, they called it “pedal misapplication.” But this time around, the Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, wouldn’t do that. He said it was caused by mechanical problems, i.e., sticky pedals and piled up floormats.
Too bad the Secretary didn’t have the courage to call it like it is. By failing to identify the root cause of the problem, more people are going to lose their lives.
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[Image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty]
Continue reading Opinion: Five Questions For Ray LaHood
Opinion: Five Questions For Ray LaHood originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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