A high speed crash close to San Diego in August 2009 that killed four members of a family in an out-of-control Lexus ES 350 led Toyota Motor Corp., to issue its largest ever US recall – 3.8 million vehicles. The Toyota recall is to address problems with a removable floor mat that has the potential to cause accelerators to get stuck and lead to a crash.
On September 29, Toyota and the government warned owners to remove mats from their vehicles temporarily, until the automaker found a way to fix the potential safety hazard. The recall of 3.8 million vehicles includes popular models such as Toyota Camry (2007-10 model year) which is the U.S.’s top-selling passenger car and the best-selling gas-electric hybrid – the Toyota Prius (2004-09). Others include: 2005-10 Toyota Avalon, 2005-10 Toyota Tacoma, 2007-10 Toyota Tundra, 2007-10 Lexus ES 350 and 2006-10 Lexus IS 250 and IS 350 vehicles.
Toyota is still working with officials of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to find a solution and stated that car owners would be notified about the recall as early as next week. The company’s spokesperson, Irv Miller said that until Toyota finds a solution, owners should take out the removable floormat on the driver’s side.
According to the NHTSA, reports of over 100 incidents had been received in which the accelerator might have been stuck on Toyota vehicles. However, it was unclear regarding how many of them led to crashes.
Toyota’s previously largest U.S. recall was about 900,000 vehicles in 2005 to fix a steering issue.