Toyota Deaths Now Total 89

June 4, 2010

The following is a guest post by Kerckhoff Law, APC:

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration has raised the number of deaths associated with Toyota acceleration to 89. According to the AP, the NHTSA reported this week that 89 deaths in the past ten years can be attributed to “unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles.” Further, It states that according to the NHTSA: “From 2000 to mid-May, [Toyota] had received more than 6,200 complaints involving sudden acceleration in [its] vehicles. The reports involve 89 deaths and 57 injuries over the same period. Previously, 52 deaths were blamed on the problem.”

Bloomberg News reports that yesterday in Los Angeles, Superior Court Judge Carl West heard arguments regarding whether 21 lawsuits should be grouped together (Toyota Motor Cases, Case No. JCCP4621, Superior Court of California {Los Angeles}). The cases include a class-action lawsuit brought by the Orange County District Attorney and a lawsuit by the family of a California Highway Patrol officer who died in a crash in San Diego. Judge West stated: “Lawsuits in California state court against Toyota Motor Corporation related to sudden acceleration of its vehicles should be coordinated so they can be handled more efficiently.” He plans to recommend to the California Supreme Court Chief Justice that the lawsuits should be coordinated in either Orange County or Los Angeles, California. He also said he recommends the personal injury lawsuits proceed either as a separate group before the same judge, or in one group on separate tracks with the class-action lawsuits.

The world’s largest automaker faces at least 228 federal and 99 state lawsuits, including proposed class actions, allegedly caused by sudden-acceleration incidents. On April 9th, the federal lawsuits were combined before U.S. District Judge James V. Selna in Santa Ana, California.

Lisa Gilford, a lawyer who represents Toyota, commented at yesterday’s hearing that Toyota would prefer to have one coordinated proceeding for the state court cases in Orange County, because the federal cases are already there.

A. Jason Kerckhoff is a San Diego personal injury lawyer and the President of Kerckhoff Law, APC, a San Diego personal injury law firm committed to representing people who have been seriously injured, and the families of people who have suffered death due to the negligence of another party.

For more than twenty-five years now, A. Jason Kerckhoff has been successfully obtaining excellent results for his clients . He has the highest rating in Martindale-Hubbell, a preeminent company that rates attorneys for their abilities as well as for their ethics. Only a small percentage of lawyers in the San Diego community are privileged to have achieved this rating. The firm serves all of San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Imperial Counties in California.

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