Family undeterred by report on Toyota issues

Though NASA concluded electronic flaws not responsible for unintended acceleration, suburban family pressing on with lawsuit over father’s death

By Robert Channick, Special to the Tribune

Chicago Tribune, February 23, 2011

A study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that even enlisted the expertise of NASA engineers concluded this month that, despite rampant speculation, electronic flaws were not responsible for unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles.

For the family of Leon Przybylowski, a retired Streamwood truck driver who died last May at age 87 after his 2006 Corolla inexplicably accelerated though a South Elgin strip mall parking lot and into a brick wall — an incident caught on video — it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to make the connection.

“The car took off like a jackrabbit,” said his son, Leo Przybylowski, 45, of Bartlett. “It just doesn’t compute.”

Blaming floor mats and sticky pedals, Toyota recalled 8 million vehicles in 2009 and 2010 and paid nearly $49 million in fines for its slow response to the unintended acceleration problems. Unsatisfied with the automaker’s explanations, critics pointed instead to potential glitches in the electronic throttle control system, a contention that made its way to a receptive congressional hearing in February 2010.

The Przybylowski family, not covered by the mechanical recalls, in October filed a wrongful death lawsuit — one of about 400 civil actions brought against Toyota — claiming defective electronics were at fault. But findings from the 10-month federal study may have substantially weakened those cases.

“The announcement doesn’t make any of the litigation go away, but it certainly makes the plaintiffs’ job much more difficult,” said Bob Carter, Toyota Division group vice president and general manager.

Still reeling from the tragedy, the Przybylowskis — and at least one prominent expert — aren’t quite ready to dismiss the claims of electronic unintended acceleration in Toyotas.

The elder Przybylowski, a widower and father of four, began driving trucks in the Army during World War II. For many years, he delivered vending supplies to O’Hare International Airport and other destinations. After retiring at 65, he worked part-time delivering flowers from a van for another five years, his family said.

In recent years, he drove several times a week to Lucky’s Bar, now Stanley’s Ale House, in South Elgin, to visit its adjacent off-track betting parlor.

His family said he eschewed alcohol but would meet up with friends and place small wagers on the horse races.

“That was his passion, playing the ponies,” his son said.

On May 29, a Saturday afternoon trip took a horrible and unexpected turn.

Recorded on surveillance video, Przybylowski’s Corolla is shown backing out of a parking space, striking a car behind it, then suddenly roaring forward, pushing one parked car out of the way and swerving to avoid pedestrians before accelerating into the brick wall of a CVS pharmacy.

Taken to Provena St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin, Przybylowski died early the next morning of injuries from the crash. But before he passed away, he reported that his car just “took off,” his son said.

“I thought that was a heroic piece of driving,” said his son, who has watched the agonizing video several times. Neither he nor the family’s attorney, Martin Dolan, could explain why the car apparently went backward first.

No prior traffic tickets or other moving violations were found against Przybylowski in a search of Cook, Kane and DuPage county court records.

For its part, Toyota contends the 2006 Corolla did not have unintended acceleration problems, placing the blame for such an accident on driver error — hitting the wrong pedal. In light of NHTSA’s findings, it is a position that might carry some weight in court.

“Toyota wants to use that report as a blanket defense to this case and all the other cases,” said Dolan. “We will fight the admissibility of that report in this case.”

If the federal report is allowed, Dolan is confident that other experts will successfully rebut the study, despite the lofty credentials of its authors.

“Just because somebody is a rocket scientist doesn’t mean they’re right,” Dolan said. “There (are) highly qualified experts, equal to the caliber of those people, who will say that the car is wired in such a way that it causes electronic interference and sudden acceleration.”

One such expert might be Dave Gilbert, a professor of automotive technology at Southern Illinois University, whose own study was a catalyst for the NASA investigation. Last February, Gilbert testified before Congress that inducing a short in the electronic throttle control sensors caused unintended acceleration in Toyotas.

Buried on Page 122 of the NASA report, Gilbert cites the discovery of tin whiskers on Toyota pedal assemblies — hairlike metal growths capable of producing the resistive shorts he used in his own experiment — as evidence that NHTSA might have overstated its conclusion.

“Everyone’s entitled to their opinion and that’s theirs,” Gilbert said. “Their opinion is not necessarily mine.”

In August, three months after his death, Przybylowski’s Corolla was among 1.1 million vehicles recalled for faulty engine control modules — a defect that Toyota claimed could cause harsh shifting or engine failure.

Gilbert said that issue might also be related to electronic unintended acceleration, since the engine control module drives the throttle.

“It’s certainly something that would need to be looked into,” Gilbert said.

Leo Przybylowski, confident in his father’s driving ability to the end, has no such faith left in Toyota. In the wake of the accident, he said, he sold his 2009 Lexus ES 350 at a $6,000 loss in August. And though the engineering arguments are admittedly beyond his scope, he is undeterred by NHTSA’s findings in pursuit of their lawsuit.

“We lost our dear father because of this,” he said, “and we’re not going to give up on it just because of one report.”

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