Michigan Radio News

NPR News

« Essay: Kildee Jumps In - 2.24.10 | Main | Essay: Prison Policy - 2.26.10 »

February 25, 2010

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

I drive my Ford "North American Car of the Year Award Winning" Fusion and love it. I was going between the Civic and the Fusion and the Ford won because of my wanting to support the local economy. Most people outside of SE Michigan don't have that same factor influencing their decision, so I hope the quality criteria on their mental checklist ranks high for the Big Three.

I have a very simple question for Jack Lessenberry. Indeed, it is a challenge. A throw-down, as some people might say.

Jack, my friend, use all of your reportorial and journalistic skills, and explain for us, in 25 words of less, what it is that makes Toyotas dangerously prone to sudden-acceleration accidents. Please. Do it. I don't think you can. Indeed, I don't think Ralph Nader can. Nor can Joan Claybrook, or Henry Waxman, or Ray LaHood, or Sean Kane or anyone in the Democrat-Lawsuit Industrial complex.

I don't believe that there is anyone who can provide us with a direct, plain-English explanation as to what the "fatal defect" is in Toyota automobiles, or how Toyota was negligent.

Jack, I dare ya.

Of course, trial lawyers will come up with something. A theory of some kind. We saw the same process with the Audi 5000. You start with some incident reports, and an interested trial lawyer, with his privately-retained expert, and a capable public relations firm, who talks to newspaper reporters, who inspire a story by 60 Minutes, which is then watched by Congressmen.

I commend to all, Holman Jenkins' column from the Friday, 2/26 Wall Street Journal, entitled, "Trial Lawyers v. Toyota." Jenkins reported on last week's House Energy and Commerce witch hu- er, show tri-, er, "Hearing," in which virtually every witness (save for the medieval ritual shaming of Toyota executives) was part of the product-liability lawsuit industry. This is your government in action.

As Jenkins observed, it is astonishing that when we hear of commercial airliner crashes nowadays, we understand that "pilot error" is always a real issue, despite the fact that commercial airline pilots are some of the more elaborately trained and regulated professionals in our entire society. And yet when we are talking about huge populations of ordinary doofus drivers, we have a hard time accepting that people crash for any reason other than that their car was negligently built. Far be it from Congressmen, faced with weepy relatives of crash victims, to make that observation. But it remains; can anyone describe for us succinctly, what is wrong with Toyotas.

[I should note this non-disclaimer: I have nothing to disclaim. I don't work for Toyota, and I don't represnet Toyota in product liability claims. I don't own a Toyota, and I don't plan to. I do have a deep, abiding, profound conviction that trial lawyers are deserving of the highest possible level of public mistrust.]

Your turn, Jack. Step up to the plate, and give us that plain English 25-word explanation as to what the design defect in Toyotas is.

First demonstrate that you have a name, and are not too afraid to use it. Then maybe one can judge whether you work for Toyota or not.

I didn't think so. And in fairness to Jack Lessenberry, it wasn't a trick question. I wasn't questioning his knowledge or his good sense. Jack's not an automotive engineer, nor am I. Neither one of us ought to be entrusted with any important software, automotive or otherwise.

My question is just as easily put to the whole world, as to Mr. Lessenberry:
Does ANYBODY have a clearly-understandable single theory as to what caused sudden-acceleration accidents in Toyotas?

Was it entangled floor mats? That is easy enough to fix, and hardly worth dragging the CEO of Toyota from Japan to Washington, D.C., to be prostrated in front of a Congressional Committe on national television. Was it a poorly-designed or -manufactured accelerator pedal? Again, that redesign has already been put in place. I don't think it explains most of the crashes in any event.

Was it buggy electronics? A throttle-relay software glitch? Toyota says they know of no such defect. And if anyone has proven such a defect, I'm not aware of it.

But surely Jack Lessenberry and his erudite readership will know. After all, this is, according to Mr. Lessenberry, "one of the most frightening safety issues imaginable. Cars which accelerate out of control without warning, threatening to kill the drivers."

So with something this important, this threatening, this much of a clear and present danger which was so foreseeable by Toyota -- surely, someone will know, and will be able to clearly and succinctly state; Just exactly what is the Toyota defect?

The comments to this entry are closed.

A Production of

***UPDATE 9/2/09: Read the user agreement, effective immediately.***

The Podcast

RSS

April 2011

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
          1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30