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Toyota to pay $11 million after trial for fatal Camry crash

Years after Toyota's unintended acceleration fiasco, the company is still making headlines for cars with sticky gas pedals. A federal jury in Minnesota decided yesterday that Toyota should pay $11 million for its role in the crash of a 1996 Camry that resulted in three deaths and sent a man to jail. A stuck pedal caused the Camry of Koua Fong Lee to accelerate uncontrollably and impact an Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, killing its driver and his nine-year-old son, and paralyzing a six-year-old girl, who later died of her injuries. Two other passengers in the Olds were seriously injured. Lee spent nearly three years in prison on a charge of vehicular homicide, until the unintended acceleration recall erupted. He filed a motion for a new trial and won, and then joined the suit against Toyota filed by the victims and their families of the 2006 crash that left him imprisoned. The jury found Toyota 60 percent responsible for the accident, with the remaining 40 percent of blame going to Lee. Toyota has denied that the 1996 Camry, which wasn't included in the company's sweeping accelerator pedal recalls, was at fault. Toyota released a statement saying the company respects the jury's decision but believes the evidence clearly showed the vehicle wasn't the accident's cause. The company said it will study the record and consider its legal options. Under Minnesota law, the way the jury allocated fault means Toyota is responsible for paying all damages, minus 40 percent of the amount awarded to Lee, said Lee's attorney, Bob Hilliard. That brings Toyota's total liability to $10.94 million. Lee will receive $750,000 of that total. During the trial, Hilliard, told jurors there was a defect in the car's design. He said the Camry's auto-drive assembly could stick, and when tapped or pushed while stuck, it could stick again at a higher speed. He also accused Toyota of never conducting reliability tests on nylon resin pulleys that could be damaged under heat and cause the throttle to stick. "This is what makes the car go. This is what turns it into a torpedo, a missile, a deadly weapon," Hilliard said during his closing argument. Toyota said there was no defect in the design of the 1996 Camry. The company's attorney, David Graves, suggested that Lee was an inexperienced driver and mistook the gas pedal for the brake. Toyota also noted that Lee's car was never subject to the recalls of later-model Toyotas.

BMW M850i Coupe, Jeep Wrangler Rubicon and a 1996 Toyota Land Cruiser | Autoblog Podcast #585

In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor Alex Kierstein and Senior Editor, Green, John Snyder. This week, they talk about driving the BMW 8 Series Coupe, Jeep Wrangler Rubicon and Toyota Corolla Hatchback. Then they talk about the news, including electric Hummer rumors and Tesla pickup timing. Finally, they consider whether or not Greg should buy his neighbor's 1996 Toyota Land Cruiser. Autoblog Podcast #585 Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown Cars we're driving: BMW M850i xDrive Coupe Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Toyota Corolla Hatchback In the news: Is an all-electric Hummer in the works? Tesla pickup truck is on its way Spend My Money: 1996 Toyota Land Cruiser Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on iTunes Related Video:

Toyota investing $200M in Southern manufacturing

Over the past two years, Toyota has invested more than $2 billion at its North American production facilities, and it apparently doesn't plan on stopping there. To keep up with recent strong sales, Toyota is investing an additional $200 million at its engine plants in the Southern US to increase production capacity of its V6 engines.
The bulk of this money ($150 million) will go to expand Toyota's engine plant in Huntsville, AL, which is currently responsible for supplying engines - four-cylinder, V6 and V8 - to eight of Toyota's 12 domestically produced vehicles. That includes the best-selling Toyota Camry (shown above).
Toyota didn't say exactly what improvements are being made to the plant, but this follows last year's $80 million investment in the plant that is set to be completed by next year raising the engine capacity to 750,000 annual units including 362,000 V6s. The remaining $50 million will go to the casting plants of Toyota-owned Bodine Aluminum in Missouri and Tennessee, which supply engine blocks and cylinder heads to the Huntsville engine plant as well as others in Kentucky and West Virginia. Scroll down below for the official press release.