Do Early Model Toyota's have a steering problem?
Hickory County, Missouri – I ran across this little noticed news story about an accident in Missouri where one Iowa resident was killed and another person injured. The person that died was only 45-years-old, the driver 49. According to the report the driver said the steering on his car failed, causing him to lose control. The car went off the pavement, into a tree and then turned over. The passenger was the person that died. She was Judy Shaw and she was wearing her seat belt. On this blog I don’t normally mention names, but in this instance I will hoping to catch the attention of her friends and relatives, because there is a reason having to do with a potential claim and how they must preserve the car in order to be able to have the case evaluated. Preservation of evidence is something I've written about previously. So listen, please.
The point goes back to systematic destruction of evidence and what you need to do to protect your legal interests. Face it, your insurance company isn't really your good neighbor and you're not in good hands with most. And I don't care how many awards JD Power & Associates handed you because when it comes down to the insured's legal interests you all get an "F". The insurance industry sees nothing to be gained by helping you with a potential personal injury or death claim. So... if the car is defective it's up to you to preserve it. Read the post titled Systematic Destruction of Evidence from November 24, 2010.
The accident happened in Hickory County, Missouri and was investigated by the Missouri Highway Patrol. Accident occurred on U.S. 65 about three miles north of Preston. They were driving a 2006 Toyota Corolla. I’ve not heard of steering problems in those cars, but a quick check on the Internet indicates otherwise. In February of this year steering problems were reported in 2009 and 2010 Toyota Corollas. The federal agency in charge of investigating the Toyota steering problem reports about 80 complaints from drivers of the 2009 and 2010 Corollas. I have to wonder if the 2006 model may not also have problems. See this last article indicating Toyota has received 83 complaints, 76 of which caused the car to veer right or left at speeds over 40 mph. Because of this issue there have been at least 10 accidents. Toyota has offered to fix the problem. Continued problems have been reported and like the Audi issue years ago the manufacturer is saying there is no problem. It’s within the specs is the auto-speak you will probably hear at the dealer. That means I’ve got it set up like the manufacturer wants it set up, but there is no affirmative statement there is not a problem.
In this case the owner of the car, or the reported driver, should preserve the car and not have it scrapped. The driver and the passenger’s family may have a claim against Toyota, but without the car they will have no claim. The driver is reported to be Eugene Perkins, 49, although they don’t say where he’s from. This point goes back to my post on the systematic destruction of evidence. A quick search of the NHTSA site for “Toyota + steering” produced over ten pages of results. The most interesting one involved the NHTSA investigation into the timeliness of the 2005 Toyota steering.
NHTSA Opens Investigation into Timeliness of 2005 Toyota Steering ...
... NHTSA Opens Investigation into Timeliness of 2005 Toyota Steering Relay Rod Recall. Share and Bookmark. close. Google. Favorites. RSS this page. close. ... | 25k
As Mr. Conrad would say on Hill Street Blues, “And people remember… let’s be safe out there.”
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NHTSA website.
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File Your Safety Complaint – Help us keep each other safe and alive.
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Motor Vehicle Safety Defects and Recalls Campaigns Booklet answers questions on how and why recall campaigns are initiated.
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