Toyota Steering Problems Uncovered in Lawsuit Lead to NHTSA Probe

A wrongful death lawsuit over a fatal Toyota pick-up truck accident has brought documents to the surface that once again have federal investigators questioning whether Toyota dragged its feet on issuing an earlier recall over steering problems. 

The family of Michael Levi Stewart have filed a lawsuit against Toyota Motor Co. over his September 15, 2007 death in a car crash near Fairfield, Idaho. The lawsuit alleges that the steering rod on Stewart’s 1991 Toyota pick up truck failed, causing Stewart to lose control of the vehicle. Stewart, who was 18 years old at the time of the accident, was killed and three other passengers were injured.

The pick-up truck was one of nearly one million vehicles in the U.S. targeted by a 2005 Toyota steering problem recall, but the previous owner of the truck before Stewart purchased it in 2007 said they never received a recall notice. The Stewart family’s lawsuit, filed in California state court, has brought to light company documents that have sparked a new investigation by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) into whether Toyota may have violated federal law by waiting nearly a year to recall the trucks after they discovered there was a steering rod problem.

The probe comes as Toyota is still reeling from the recall of millions of vehicles due to problems with sudden acceleration, which also involved allegations that the auto maker delayed acting on safety concerns. As a result of the recent recalls, Toyota faces a criminal probe, has received hefty government fines and dozens of new Toyota lawsuits over injuries and deaths have been filed.

Records obtained during the Stewart litigation indicate that Toyota had been receiving reports of cracking and breaking steering rods for 11 years before the company moved to pull 330,000 pick up trucks and SUVs off the road in Japan in 2004. The company told the NHTSA at the time that there was no problem with the American versions of the vehicles, but less than a year later, it recalled about a million similar cars and trucks for the same problem, That could be a violation of federal law, which requires an automaker to report safety problems to NHTSA within five days of their discovery, according to a story in USA Today.

Critics say that the NHTSA should have investigated the domestic versions of the vehicles involved in the Japanese Toyota recall, but NHTSA officials said that the low number of vehicles involved and the lack of any injuries caused the recall to fly below their radar.

Documents now show that there were a number of warning signs that should have triggered NHTSA interest, including records that indicate Toyota was performing warranty fixes of steering rods on vehicles that were no longer under warranty.

According to a statement made in the USA Today report, Toyota officials have said they will not comment, since the incidents involve ongoing litigation. They have indicated, however, that they are fully cooperating with the NHTSA probe.

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