A chilling 911 call from a US family ended up costing Toyota billions.
On 28 August 2009, Mark Saylor was behind the wheel of a loaner Toyota from a dealership, speeding at 120 mph. With him in the car was his wife, 13-year-old daughter and brother-in-law.
After discovering that the 'brakes weren't working' and 'acceleration was stuck,' Saylor’s brother-in-law Chris Lastrella made a desperate 911 call.
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"We're in trouble... There's no brake," Lastrella told a police dispatcher over a cellphone, where the sound of the engine revving out of control could be heard. Trying to avoid crashing into other cars, Sailor avoided the upcoming intersection and swerved off the road into a ravine.
The tragic call lasted just 17 seconds before it was abruptly cut off. All four passengers were killed instantly.
As a result, the families blamed Toyota, and it wasn’t an isolated case. Hundreds of similar incidents involving sudden acceleration had already been reported to Toyota and federal regulators, according to an examination of public records by The Times.
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Between 2009 and 2010, the car manufacturer was forced to recall around 10 million vehicles. At first, Toyota pointed fingers at the vehicle's floor mats, claiming they could jam open the accelerator pedal. It was later found that the same car Saylor had been driving was previously flagged for problems with its floor mats, causing 'unintended acceleration.'
And in 2014, Toyota paid $1.2 billion in fines to the US government after covering up severe safety problems with 'unintended acceleration' - all while continuing to build cars with parts the FBI said the company 'knew were deadly.' Additionally, Toyota paid another $1.1 billion in a massive class action lawsuit.
After investigations, it was discovered that the same car Saylor was driving was previously reported for 'loose floor mats' that caused 'unintended acceleration.' But after more digging, investigators found even bigger issues.
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Consumer Reports conducted an experiment that found Saylor and his family victims of Toyota's 'power-assisted braking.' Because the power brakes rely on vacuum pressure from the engine, if the engine’s wide open, that vacuum drops fast.
"If you take your foot off the brake even one time, you lose your power assistance and it becomes almost impossible to stop the vehicle," a spokesperson for Consumer Reports said. In that situation, even slamming the brake pedal with full force might not stop the car, experts explained.
“I don’t think you can stop a car going 120 mph and an engine at full throttle without power assist,” said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety.
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