It has not been a positive few weeks for Toyota.  Recently, the company announced a massive recall of more than 2 million vehicles because of problems with the accelerator pedal.  Now, just days later, the company is beginning a recall of its best-selling brand and most prominent model of recent times, the Prius.  This represents only the latest in a string of Toyota recalls dating back to last year.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

“A reluctant Toyota Motor Corp. on Tuesday announced a global recall of its flagship Prius and other gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, even as executives suggested they weren’t required to do so.

Toyota’s quality chief, Shinichi Sasaki, said at a press conference here that the problematic brake systems in the recalled cars “meet safety standards,” a comment implying the company isn’t required legally to recall the vehicles. But Toyota decided to take action and update software that controls the brake system in order to “be in accordance with the spirit” of those standards, Mr. Sasaki said.”

It’s believed that the recall affects more than 400,000 Prius vehicles.  The brake systems have shown themselves to be dangerous in different models around the world, and the recall reaches from the United States to Japan to other markets on different continents.

If you or someone you love has been injured by a defective Toyota vehicle, you need legal help.  Contact the Sacramento defective products lawyers who have years of experience in holding large corporations accountable for releasing dangerous products to consumers.  Contact Demas & Rosenthal today to schedule a free initial consultation.

If we fail to come up with new, meaningful restrictions on driving while talking on cell phones, far too many of us may wind up seriously injured or killed in auto accidents. While we may be old enough to drive, we don’t seem to have the necessary patience to drive a bit further (in non-emergency situations) to find a safe place to pull over and use our cell phones. By allowing this type of laziness, we endanger ourselves, our passengers, pedestrians, cyclists and everyone else out on the road.

In a recent New York Times article, Matt Richtel noted that it took a Freedom of Information lawsuit to obtain federal government research indicating how dangerous it is for Americans to combine cell phone use with driving. (Interested readers can download a copy of this lengthy study.) The following are some of the facts, arguments and danger estimates contained in that research:

• About 955 deaths were likely caused in 2002 by Americans who were using their cell phones will driving;
• Two-hundred and forty thousand (240,000) – or nearly a quarter of a million accidents, were caused by drivers who were talking on their cell phones at the time of their accidents;
• Just passing “hands-free” laws allowing cell phone users to keep talking on their phones if they aren’t actually holding them is an inadequate remedy;
• It’s all about focus. Everyone knows that human conversations can turn upsetting, argumentative or extremely challenging at any second. This reality robs drivers of the constant focus they need to avoid careless driving choices;
• Those who drive and talk on the phone are about four times more likely to cause an accident than those who refrain from “multi-tasking” or chatting on the phone while behind the wheel;
• People who talk on their cell phones while driving are about as likely to cause an accident as an individual driver with a blood alcohol content of 0.8;
• What’s even more frightening is that this research was based on the assumption that only six percent (6%) of drivers use their phones while driving at any given time. It’s now thought that this figure is closer to about twelve percent (12%);
• While some of the data may have been incomplete and lacking precision, the researchers who called for a more extensive study to be conducted immediately may have been urged to not voice their strong opinions – perhaps for political reasons. (See: “Driven to Distraction.“)

However, you personally view the research now being fully released to the public, we think you’ll probably agree with us that it’s time we all start thinking about greatly limiting our cell phone use while driving.

We hope you’ve never been injured in an accident when either a friend or stranger was driving while talking on a cell phone. However, if you have, or know someone else who has, please let them know that we have the skills and lengthy legal experience to represent clients injured in such auto accidents.

On Saturday, April 4th, 2009, yet another bus crash injured dozens and took the life of an innocent passenger near the Sacramento area. All told, counting the bus driver, two dozen people had to be rushed to various local hospitals. Most of the injured had boarded the bus in Reno to get to their jobs at the Resort at Squaw Creek, a Lake Tahoe skiing venue, where many worked as housekeepers, bookkeepers, cooks and dishwashers. The one worker who died, was thrown from the bus and trapped underneath it once it stopped rolling. This 1995 Euro bus was not equipped with seatbelts since they aren’t currently required in this type of vehicle.

Witnesses said that while trying to make a turn on westbound Interstate 80, the driver allegedly failed to brake or even truly turn the wheel. The bus hit a guardrail, rolled down an embankment and then rolled over three or four times. Thorough questioning of the driver had to be delayed since he was hospitalized with his own serious head trauma. http://www.sacbee.com/ Many questions remain since the 66-year-old driver supposedly only had minor offenses listed on his driving record.

At the time of the 8:30 a.m. crash, good weather prevailed. After the bus broke through the guardrail and rolled down the embankment, a Caltrans spokesperson said the bus rolled over several times before landing upright in a ditch. Many of the victims suffered head injuries, broken bones, and cuts and scrapes.

This recent crash is sure to remind many of the one that occurred late last year, during the early evening hours of Monday, October 5, 2008. That accident involved a bus traveling from Sacramento to the Colusa Casino Resort. After seven passengers lost their lives at the scene, three more died at area hospitals that same night. http://www.sfgate.com/ Approximately 38 passengers were taken from the accident scene, located about 60 miles north of Sacramento, to local and regional hospitals. All were jostled rather violently as the bus rolled completely over before landing upright in a ditch.

Rescue workers struggled to identify and help those who were injured in this 2008 incident since so many of them only spoke Lao. It appears that no other vehicles were involved in that accident. Sadly, some wonder whether this 2008 incident was tied to alcohol or substance abuse. The driver had been cited for past speeding violations and had even had his driver’s license suspended for two recent years. Supposedly, the driver had only regained his license less than 12 months prior to this October 2008 accident.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
Since we continue to meet more and more bus and auto crash accident victims in our law offices, we want to remind everyone to learn all they can, ahead of time, about (1) the maintenance records of any bus they’re planning to ride on and (2) those who may be driving them in a bus to a future destination.