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Feds consider brake override on new cars
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Tuesday his agency may recommend that all new vehicles sold in the U.S. be equipped with brakes that can override the gas pedal. The idea seemed to be gaining support among lawmakers as Toyota officials returned for a third hearing on lethal safety defects.
"We will not rest until these cars are safe," LaHood told the Senate Commerce Committee.
He said the "Toyota business model is broken" but predicted improvements. "I think you'll see some changes in the way they do business," LaHood told the panel.
His testimony came as federal safety officials increased to 52 the number of reported deaths linked to sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles, through the end of last month. Previously, 34 deaths were blamed on the problem.
Toyota Motor Corp. and federal regulators both faced questions from Congress over the giant Japanese car company's troubled safety record.
"We know something has gone terribly wrong," said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. "The system meant to safeguard against faulty vehicles has failed, and it needs to be fixed and it needs to be fixed right away."
Multiple recalls have damaged Toyota's reputation and set the stage for large numbers of death and injury lawsuits amid a criminal investigation by federal prosecutors in New York, a probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission and more scrutiny from the Transportation Department. Since September, Toyota has recalled about 6 million vehicles in the U.S.
One element of new legislation could be a requirement that all newly manufactured cars sold in the United States have a break override system.
Toyota has said it will put such an override system into all future vehicles and will retrofit many recalled models. More than 8 million Toyota cars have been recalled because of sudden acceleration or breaking defects.
The backup safety system under discussion overrides the accelerator if the gas and brake pedals are pressed at the same time.
Nice.
Congress is going back into the engineering field again.
Remember airbags, and how they wound up killing more children than the adult lives they were supposed to save?
The free market is already dealing with the stuck acclerator issue. Congress should vote themselves another 20 days off before they start interfering in the car industry again.