February 4, 2010
Fatal Houston Car Crash Leads to Lawsuit Against Toyota
The family of a 34 year old, Trina Renee Harris, filed a wrongful death suit against Toyota this week. Mrs. Harris died when her Toyota sped through a stop sign and crashed into a cement wall.
Trina Renee Harris, a 34-year-old mother of two, died on impact when her 2009 Toyota Corolla slammed into an East Hardy Toll Road cement divider at Barry, leaving no skid marks, Houston police reported.
Her husband, Michael Harris, filed a lawsuit Monday against Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., gas pedal maker CTS Corp. and Fred Haas Toyota World, which leased her the car. Lawyers involved in the lawsuit said it's likely the third such case filed in response to acceleration problems that prompted Toyota to recall millions of vehicles and halt some production.
The Harris case is believed to be the third acceleration related wrongful death lawsuit filed against Toyota. Toyota is also being sued for unexpected acceleration related deaths in California and Michigan. Toyota has refused to comment on the pending litigation.
Toyota said Monday it has developed a fix for gas pedals in millions of recalled vehicles and is already shipping the new parts to dealers.
The fix involves reinforcing the pedal assembly in a way that eliminates the excess friction that has caused the pedals to stick, the company said in a press release. Toyota recalled 2.3 million vehicles in the United States for this problem.
Toyota said replacement parts are already being shipped and that dealers will work extended hours to fix the recalled vehicles.
"We know what's causing the sticking accelerator pedals, and we know what we have to do to fix it," said Jim Lentz, Toyota's president and chief operating officer, in a statement.
Toyota will begin contacting customers as early as this week to let them know when to bring in their vehicles for the fix. The automaker said it will cover all costs related to the fix, which will take about 30 minutes.
It's not clear how long it will take to fix all 2.3 million cars, Lentz told CNNMoney.com. Much will depend on how quickly customers bring their cars into dealers for repairs.
Customers will begin receiving notices late this week and dealers will start doing repairs this weekend, Lentz said in a conference call.
Dealers will be open extended hours, he said.
