On 3/25/2014, I was struck by 2 separate articles about the $1,200,000,000 (yes, that's $1.2 Billion) fine by the US Justice Department against Toyota, plus federal oversight for 3 years. Not that I am particularly incensed that the world's best maker of safe cars (statistically) has to pony up $1,200,000,000 for a nonexistent safety flaw in their cars. With our government, these unjust intrusions on private enterprise are increasingly common. This is a chance for those who claim media bias does not exist to defend their position.
One article is filled with facts (those are the things that journalists used to report), and another is filled with inaccurate and misleading statements. Again, you decide which one!
The Tribune (our local San Luis Obispo paper) ran this article, attributed to an editorial in the Sacramento Bee ("Carmakers will pay high price for hiding flaws"), which you can read by clicking here.
The Wall Street Journal wrote an article on the same day on the same topic. You can read this editorial ("The Justice Department's Unjust Toyota Fine") by clicking here. I'll let you be the judge. How can we get 2 such diametrically opposing views? Indeed.
I have pulled out the facts from these 2 articles below. Remember, they are both editorials, so the author's opinions are expected - however, we still expect their opinions to be based on facts as they see them.
Fact 1. Toyota has agreed to pay $1,200,000,000 penalty and submit to 3 years of federal oversight.
Fact 2. In 2011, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published a study that concluded that incorrectly fitted floor mats (i.e., mats not manufactured by Toyota to fit the car they were in) caused 2 cases of unintended acceleration. The other causes of unintended acceleration were determined to be operator error (called "Pedal Misapplication").
Fact 3. Internal Toyota emails indicated that they resisted recalling several million cars with non-existent safety flaws due to the desire to save money.
Fact 4. NHTSA examined 58 Toyota's involved in these "unintended acceleration" incidents. 40 of them had functional "black boxes". The boxes showed no signs of throttle or brake failure, and no signs of sustained braking at all.
Fact 5. "Unintended acceleration" is nothing new, and has been around as far as I can remember. Every car maker has had these allegations made against it - with the larger company receiving greater complaints. Every time, no safety flaw was found, but operator error (mashing the gas instead of the brake) was the only cause.
Fact 6. There is no evidence that Toyota's recall averted even a single crash. The only way to lower this risk is to ban floor mats altogether, or move gas pedals somewhere other than on the floor.
Fact 7. Toyota was also accused of "sticky pedal syndrome", defined as "unwanted friction makes some gas pedals stick on the way back up". The NHTSA reported there was no evidence of sticky pedals in any of the documented accidents.
Fact 8. Toyota reported some of these alleged safety issues "late", and somehow this justified the $1,200,000,000 in fines and government oversight.
These 2 approaches illustrate the fact that certain groups despise all corporations independent of whether they produce wonderful, safe, affordable products like Toyota. These same folks love big government, which is far larger, far more manipulative, and have far more control over our lives. If we don't like Toyota's behavior, we can buy a Subaru or Ford instead. We can't choose a different government, unless we move to another country!
Side note: My own father had 2 recent incidents of misapplication of pedals in his Toyota truck. In both instance, instead of hitting the brakes (his intention), he hit the gas pedal. In 1 incident, he struck the rear bumper of the stationary car in front of him. In the 2nd incident, he hit a steel 4" pole in a parking lot. Both times, he (much later) admitted to "pilot error" - i.e., he realized, in retrospect, that he was hitting the gas instead of the brake. My Dad is a senior in declining health, and attributes these 2 errors to slower reaction times due to increased age, and not to his Toyota having a "stuck floor mat" or "sticking gas pedal or throttle".
Regarding the 8 facts above: Facts 1 - 7 were reported in the Wall Street Journal editorial, and Fact 1 and 8 were the only facts (as opposed to opinions or outright falsehoods) reported in the Tribune / Sacramento Bee editorial.
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