Toyota Settles Wrongful Death Lawsuits
Toyota Motor Corporation has settled the first of many wrongful death lawsuits around their vehicles’ sudden acceleration problems. The case was settled in Los Angeles in early January, with the family members of two people killed in a sudden-acceleration crash in Utah.
Paul Van Alfen and Charlene Jones Lloyd were killed when Van Alfen’s Camry slammed into a wall near Wendover, Utah in 2010; two other passengers in the vehicle, Val Alfen’s son and wife (Lloyd was his son’s fiance) were injured in the crash. This wrongful death suit was one of a handful that are being handled separate ly from the main pool of lawsuits around the faulty acceleration systems; in December of 2009, Toyota agreed to establish a settlement (worth more than $1 billion), to consolidate and resolve the hundreds of lawsuits already lined up. The main group of lawsuits deals with the financial losses Toyota owners suffered when the Japanese automaker recalled millions of vehicles—wrongful death and injury lawsuits are not part of that Class.
The family’s lawyer, Mark P. Robinson (who also represents the nine plaintiffs named in the suit) did not reply to phone or email messages left by the L.A. Times, which broke the story. Toyota’s spokeswoman, Celeste Migliore, declined to disclose the financial terms of the Van Alfen settlement. But the company issued a statement, which said its attorneys may decide to settle certain cases outside of the main settlement class, but we will have a number of other opportunities to defend our product at trial.” Toyota has been blaming driver error, faulty floor mats and stuck accelerator pedals for the problems.
Another suit around Toyota’s Electronic Throttle Control System (the company’s name for the acceleration system at the center of this mess) was also settled recently. A retired Los Angeles police officer, Michael Houlf, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court under California’s lemon law for vehicles; details of that settlement have not been released. And the initial accident, which prompted Toyota’s recall of more than 14 million vehicles, was also settled as a wrongful death case, separately from the main settlement fund, in 2010 in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana. This accident happened in suburban San Diego in 2009, when a California Highway Patrol officer driving a Toyota-built Lexus (with three of his family members inside) reached speeds of more than 120 mph, hit an SUV, launched off an embankment, rolled several times and burst into flames. Everyone inside was killed; investigators determined that a wrong-size floor mat trapped the accelerator and caused the crash, and Toyota settled for $10 million.
In the most recent case that settled—the Utah accident of November 5, 2010—the Camry suddenly accelerated, went through a stop sign at the bottom of the ramp and through an intersection before hitting the wall; investigators said skid marks showed that Van Alfen tried to stop the vehicle as it exited Interstate 80. The Utah Highway Patrol concluded the gas pedal was stuck, basing this decision on statements from witnesses and the crash survivors.
If you or a loved one has been injured by a defective product, contact Mike Agruss Law, at 312-224-4695 for a free consultation. We are a Chicago personal injury law firm representing individuals and families who have suffered an injury or loss due to an accident. Mike Agruss Law, will handle your personal injury case quickly, will advise you every step of the way, and will not hesitate to go to trial for you.
Lastly, Mike Agruss Law, does not get paid attorney’s fees unless we win your case. Our no-fee promise is that simple. Therefore, you have nothing to risk when you hire us–just the opportunity to seek justice.
