State Farm Reportedly First Warned the NHTSA About Toyota Accelerators in 2007
By Scott Doggett February 9, 2010
The blows just keep coming for Toyota, with The Washington Post reporting today that America's largest auto insurer alerted regulators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on numerous occasions starting in 2007 about a rise in reports of unexpected acceleration in Toyotas.
The warnings by State Farm - an insurer that maintains a vast store of crash data based on its customer base of more than 40 million - followed a stream of consumer complaints about the alleged defect.
NHTSA regulators received the warnings more than a year before they pressed the automaker to issue recalls affecting millions of cars and trucks.
Congressional investigators are now focusing on whether the government reacted properly to years of complaints and other evidence regarding the acceleration problems. As those investigations get underway, Toyota announced early today that it would recall its 2010 Prius and Lexus HS 250h hybrid vehicles over brake problems.
The insurer's warnings to the federal regulators could add to criticism that the agency missed or overlooked signs of trouble.
"When we see something that might be helpful, we pass it along," Dick Luedke, a State Farm spokesman, told the Post.
Luedke declined to go into detail about the alerts, except to characterize them as "numerous" and not "everyday" occurrences. "We track claim data and voluntarily share that data with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration," he said, directing further questions to the agency.
NHTSA spokeswoman Karen Aldana said the agency received a claim letter from State Farm in September 2007 regarding a Camry crash.
"Our investigative staff reviewed the report and added the information to our complaint database," she said in a statement.
At the time the agency received the letter, it already had a formal investigation open. The investigation resulted in a relatively small recall and did not affect the car listed in the State Farm letter. Aldana offered no comment on the other alerts from State Farm on Toyotas.
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