By CURT ANDERSON and DANNY ROBBINS
Southlake, Texas (AP) -- Toyota has for years blocked
access to data stored in devices similar to airline "black
boxes" that could explain crashes blamed on sudden unintended
acceleration, according to an Associated Press review of
lawsuits nationwide and interviews with auto crash experts.
The AP investigation found that Toyota has been
inconsistent - and sometimes even contradictory -- in revealing
exactly what the devices record and don't record, including
critical data about whether the brake or accelerator pedals
were depressed at the time of a crash.
By contrast, most other automakers routinely allow much
more open access to information from their event data
recorders, commonly known as EDRs.
AP also found that Toyota:
-- Has frequently refused to provide key information sought
by crash victims and survivors.
-- Uses proprietary software in its EDRs. Until this week,
there was only a single laptop in the U.S. containing the
software needed to read the data following a crash.
-- In some lawsuits, when pressed to provide recorder
information Toyota either settled or provided printouts with
the key columns blank.
Toyota's "black box" information is emerging as a critical
legal issue amid the recall of 8 million vehicles by the
world's largest automaker. The National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration said this week that 52 people have died in
crashes linked to accelerator problems, triggering an avalanche
of lawsuits.
When Toyota was asked by the AP to explain what exactly its
recorders do collect, a company statement said Thursday that
the devices record data from five seconds before until two
seconds after an air bag is deployed in a crash.
The statement said information is captured about vehicle
speed, the accelerator's angle, gear shift position, whether
the seat belt was used and the angle of the driver's seat.
There was no initial mention of brakes -- a key point in
the sudden acceleration problem. When AP went back to Toyota to
ask specifically about brake information, Toyota responded that
its EDRs do, in fact, record "data on the brake's position and
the antilock brake system."
But that does not square with information obtained by
attorneys in a deadly crash last year in Southlake, Texas, and
in a 2004 accident in Indiana that killed an elderly woman.
In the Texas crash, where four people died when their 2008
Avalon ripped through a fence, hit a tree and flipped into an
icy pond, an EDR readout obtained by police listed as "off" any
information on acceleration or braking.
In the 2004 crash in Evansville, Ind., that killed
77-year-old Juanita Grossman, attorneys for her family say a
Toyota technician traveled from the company's U.S. headquarters
in Torrance, Calif., to examine her 2003 Camry.
Before she died, the 5-foot-2, 125-pound woman told
relatives she was practically standing with both feet on the
brake pedal but could not stop the car from slamming into a
building. Records confirm that emergency personnel found
Grossman with both feet on the brake pedal.
A Toyota representative told the family's attorneys there
was "no sensor that would have preserved information regarding
the accelerator and brake positions at the time of impact,"
according to a summary of the case provided by Safety Research
& Strategies Inc., a Rehoboth, Mass.-based company that does
vehicle safety research for attorneys, engineers, government
and others.
One attorney in the Texas case contends in court documents
that the Toyota may have deliberately stopped allowing its EDRs
to collect critical information so the Japanese automaker would
not be forced to reveal it in court cases.
"This goes directly to defendants' notice of the problem
and willingness to cover up the problem," said E. Todd Tracy,
who had been suing automakers for 20 years.
Randy Roberts, an attorney for the driver in that case,
said he was surprised at how little information the Avalon's
EDR contained.
"When I found out the Toyota black box was so
uninformative, I was shocked," Roberts said.
Toyota refused comment Thursday on Tracy's allegations
because it is an ongoing legal matter, but said the company
does share EDR information with government regulators.
"Because the EDR system is an experimental device and is
neither intended, nor reliable, for accident reconstruction,
Toyota's policy is to download data only at the direction of
law enforcement, NHTSA or a court order," the Toyota statement
said.
Last week, Toyota acknowledged it has only a single laptop
available in the U.S. to download its data recorder information
because it is still a prototype, despite being in use since
2001 in Toyota vehicles. Three other laptops capable of reading
the devices were delivered this week to NHTSA for training on
their use, Toyota said, and 150 more will be brought to the
U.S. for commercial use by the end of April.
By contrast, acceptance and distribution of data recorder
technology by other automakers is commonplace.
General Motors, for example, has licensed the auto parts
maker Bosch to produce a device capable of downloading EDR data
directly to a laptop computer, either from the scene of an
accident or later. The device is available to law enforcement
agencies or any other third party, spokesman Alan Adler said.
Spokesmen from Ford and Chrysler said their recorder data
is just as accessible. "We put what you would call 'open
systems' in our vehicles, which are readable by law enforcement
or anyone who has a need to read that data," Chrysler spokesman
Mike Palese said.
Nissan also makes its EDR data readily available to third
parties using a device called Consult, spokesman Colin Price
said. The program allows access to a host of vehicle data, from
diagnosing the cause of a check-engine light to downloading EDR
data after a crash, he said.
However, Honda does not allow open access to its EDR data.
Spokesman Ed Miller said the data is only readable by Honda and
is made available only by court order.
In many cases, attorneys and crash experts say EDR data
could help explain what happened in the moments before a crash
by detailing the positions of the gas and brake pedals as well
as the engine's RPM.
"Had Toyota gotten on the stick and made this stuff
available early on, I think they'd be in a better position than
they are now," said W.R. "Rusty" Haight, owner of a San
Diego-based collision investigation company.
In congressional hearings on the recalls last week, U.S.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Toyota's EDR data
cannot be read by a commercially available tool used readily by
other automakers. "Toyota has a proprietary EDR, which is the
system that only they can read," LaHood said.
The AP review of lawsuits around the country found many in
which Toyota was accused of refusing to reveal EDR and other
data, and not just in sudden acceleration cases.
In Kentucky, to cite one example, a recent lawsuit filed by
Dari Martin over a wreck involving a 2007 Prius sought
information from Toyota to bolster his claim that the car's
seatbelt was defective. Toyota refused, contending there was no
reliable way to validate the EDR data and that an engineer
would have to travel from New Jersey or California at a cost of
some $5,000 to retrieve it.
"There is simply no justifiable reason for Toyota not to
disclose this information," Martin's lawyers said in a court
filing.
Lawsuits in California and Colorado have accused Toyota of
systemically withholding key documents and information in a
wide variety of accident cases, but no judge or jury has found
against the car company on those allegations.
Some crash experts say Toyota shouldn't bear too much
criticism for failing to capture large amounts or specific
kinds of data, because EDR systems were initially built for air
bag deployment and not necessarily to reconstruct wrecks. They
also vary widely from vehicle model to model, said Haight, the
San Diego collision expert.
"That doesn't mean I'm hiding something or preventing you
from getting something," Haight said. "It simply means that, in
the development of a car, other considerations took priority --
nothing more."
-----
Anderson reported from Miami. AP Business Writer Dan
Strumpf in New York, AP writer Greg Bluestein in Atlanta and AP
Researcher Barbara Sambriski in New York contributed to this
report.
-0- Mar/04/2010 22:42 GMT
Southlake, Texas (AP) -- Toyota has for years blocked
access to data stored in devices similar to airline "black
boxes" that could explain crashes blamed on sudden unintended
acceleration, according to an Associated Press review of
lawsuits nationwide and interviews with auto crash experts.
The AP investigation found that Toyota has been
inconsistent - and sometimes even contradictory -- in revealing
exactly what the devices record and don't record, including
critical data about whether the brake or accelerator pedals
were depressed at the time of a crash.
By contrast, most other automakers routinely allow much
more open access to information from their event data
recorders, commonly known as EDRs.
AP also found that Toyota:
-- Has frequently refused to provide key information sought
by crash victims and survivors.
-- Uses proprietary software in its EDRs. Until this week,
there was only a single laptop in the U.S. containing the
software needed to read the data following a crash.
-- In some lawsuits, when pressed to provide recorder
information Toyota either settled or provided printouts with
the key columns blank.
Toyota's "black box" information is emerging as a critical
legal issue amid the recall of 8 million vehicles by the
world's largest automaker. The National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration said this week that 52 people have died in
crashes linked to accelerator problems, triggering an avalanche
of lawsuits.
When Toyota was asked by the AP to explain what exactly its
recorders do collect, a company statement said Thursday that
the devices record data from five seconds before until two
seconds after an air bag is deployed in a crash.
The statement said information is captured about vehicle
speed, the accelerator's angle, gear shift position, whether
the seat belt was used and the angle of the driver's seat.
There was no initial mention of brakes -- a key point in
the sudden acceleration problem. When AP went back to Toyota to
ask specifically about brake information, Toyota responded that
its EDRs do, in fact, record "data on the brake's position and
the antilock brake system."
But that does not square with information obtained by
attorneys in a deadly crash last year in Southlake, Texas, and
in a 2004 accident in Indiana that killed an elderly woman.
In the Texas crash, where four people died when their 2008
Avalon ripped through a fence, hit a tree and flipped into an
icy pond, an EDR readout obtained by police listed as "off" any
information on acceleration or braking.
In the 2004 crash in Evansville, Ind., that killed
77-year-old Juanita Grossman, attorneys for her family say a
Toyota technician traveled from the company's U.S. headquarters
in Torrance, Calif., to examine her 2003 Camry.
Before she died, the 5-foot-2, 125-pound woman told
relatives she was practically standing with both feet on the
brake pedal but could not stop the car from slamming into a
building. Records confirm that emergency personnel found
Grossman with both feet on the brake pedal.
A Toyota representative told the family's attorneys there
was "no sensor that would have preserved information regarding
the accelerator and brake positions at the time of impact,"
according to a summary of the case provided by Safety Research
& Strategies Inc., a Rehoboth, Mass.-based company that does
vehicle safety research for attorneys, engineers, government
and others.
One attorney in the Texas case contends in court documents
that the Toyota may have deliberately stopped allowing its EDRs
to collect critical information so the Japanese automaker would
not be forced to reveal it in court cases.
"This goes directly to defendants' notice of the problem
and willingness to cover up the problem," said E. Todd Tracy,
who had been suing automakers for 20 years.
Randy Roberts, an attorney for the driver in that case,
said he was surprised at how little information the Avalon's
EDR contained.
"When I found out the Toyota black box was so
uninformative, I was shocked," Roberts said.
Toyota refused comment Thursday on Tracy's allegations
because it is an ongoing legal matter, but said the company
does share EDR information with government regulators.
"Because the EDR system is an experimental device and is
neither intended, nor reliable, for accident reconstruction,
Toyota's policy is to download data only at the direction of
law enforcement, NHTSA or a court order," the Toyota statement
said.
Last week, Toyota acknowledged it has only a single laptop
available in the U.S. to download its data recorder information
because it is still a prototype, despite being in use since
2001 in Toyota vehicles. Three other laptops capable of reading
the devices were delivered this week to NHTSA for training on
their use, Toyota said, and 150 more will be brought to the
U.S. for commercial use by the end of April.
By contrast, acceptance and distribution of data recorder
technology by other automakers is commonplace.
General Motors, for example, has licensed the auto parts
maker Bosch to produce a device capable of downloading EDR data
directly to a laptop computer, either from the scene of an
accident or later. The device is available to law enforcement
agencies or any other third party, spokesman Alan Adler said.
Spokesmen from Ford and Chrysler said their recorder data
is just as accessible. "We put what you would call 'open
systems' in our vehicles, which are readable by law enforcement
or anyone who has a need to read that data," Chrysler spokesman
Mike Palese said.
Nissan also makes its EDR data readily available to third
parties using a device called Consult, spokesman Colin Price
said. The program allows access to a host of vehicle data, from
diagnosing the cause of a check-engine light to downloading EDR
data after a crash, he said.
However, Honda does not allow open access to its EDR data.
Spokesman Ed Miller said the data is only readable by Honda and
is made available only by court order.
In many cases, attorneys and crash experts say EDR data
could help explain what happened in the moments before a crash
by detailing the positions of the gas and brake pedals as well
as the engine's RPM.
"Had Toyota gotten on the stick and made this stuff
available early on, I think they'd be in a better position than
they are now," said W.R. "Rusty" Haight, owner of a San
Diego-based collision investigation company.
In congressional hearings on the recalls last week, U.S.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Toyota's EDR data
cannot be read by a commercially available tool used readily by
other automakers. "Toyota has a proprietary EDR, which is the
system that only they can read," LaHood said.
The AP review of lawsuits around the country found many in
which Toyota was accused of refusing to reveal EDR and other
data, and not just in sudden acceleration cases.
In Kentucky, to cite one example, a recent lawsuit filed by
Dari Martin over a wreck involving a 2007 Prius sought
information from Toyota to bolster his claim that the car's
seatbelt was defective. Toyota refused, contending there was no
reliable way to validate the EDR data and that an engineer
would have to travel from New Jersey or California at a cost of
some $5,000 to retrieve it.
"There is simply no justifiable reason for Toyota not to
disclose this information," Martin's lawyers said in a court
filing.
Lawsuits in California and Colorado have accused Toyota of
systemically withholding key documents and information in a
wide variety of accident cases, but no judge or jury has found
against the car company on those allegations.
Some crash experts say Toyota shouldn't bear too much
criticism for failing to capture large amounts or specific
kinds of data, because EDR systems were initially built for air
bag deployment and not necessarily to reconstruct wrecks. They
also vary widely from vehicle model to model, said Haight, the
San Diego collision expert.
"That doesn't mean I'm hiding something or preventing you
from getting something," Haight said. "It simply means that, in
the development of a car, other considerations took priority --
nothing more."
-----
Anderson reported from Miami. AP Business Writer Dan
Strumpf in New York, AP writer Greg Bluestein in Atlanta and AP
Researcher Barbara Sambriski in New York contributed to this
report.
-0- Mar/04/2010 22:42 GMT
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