Toyota Gas Pedal Replacements May Be Coming Following Floor Mat Recall

Toyota Motor Corp. may be close to an agreement with federal regulators to replace the accelerator pedals on nearly four million Toyota and Lexus vehicles recalled in September due to a propensity to accelerate out of control.

According to a report by Reuters, Toyota is likely to agree to perform a voluntary gas pedal replacement to satisfy the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Although some Japanese news sources say the agreement has already been made, officials from both Toyota and the NHTSA say they are still in discussions.

The September Toyota and Lexus recall involved more than 3.8 million vehicles, including 2004-2009 Toyota Prius, 2005-2010 Toyota Avalon, 2005-2010 Toyota Tacoma, 2007-2010 Toyota Camry, 2007-2010 Toyota Tundra, 2006-2010 Lexus IS 250 and IS 350, and 2007-2010 Lexus ES 350 models.

Owners have been told to remove the driver’s side floor mats until a permanent fix can be found. At that time, Toyota indicated that the floor mats could get jammed under the gas pedal, causing the car to accelerate out of control. The defect is suspected to be involved in as many as 16 deaths and 243 injuries.

The floor mat recall was prompted by a high-profile accident in California, which killed an off-duty state trooper and three family members in August. Investigators determined that the fatal crash occurred after the gas pedal on a Lexus ES 350 became caught on the edge of the floor mat, causing the Lexus to accelerate to 120 M.P.H. before falling off an embankment, rolling over multiple times and bursting into flames.

There is already one Toyota class action lawsuit over the accelerator problems. Two drivers from California filed a complaint seeking class action status earlier this month in Riverside County Superior Court, alleging that the defect goes beyond the floor mats and includes the electronic throttle control system, known as the ETCS-i.

The lawsuit claims that the original design for the system included a safety feature that would have put the engine into idle mode in case of unintended acceleration. However, the company allegedly decided to sell the vehicles without the feature in 2001. The NHTSA has rejected this argument, saying that the only defect that accounted for the acceleration problems with Toyota and Lexus vehicles were the floor mats being out of position or inappropriately installed.