In 2008, the National Highway Traffic Safety Agency allowed Toyota to dodge a recall of Sienna minivans linked by U.S. regulators to at least 98 injuries, Bloomberg reports:
Instead of issuing a recall under the U.S. Safety Act, Toyota sent letters to owners of 196,222 Sienna vans offering to replace struts on the liftgates as part of a “safety improvement campaign” without acknowledging a defect. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration accepted the response and stopped pressing for a costlier recall, agency documents show.
The liftgates could fall with a force of up to 300 pounds and caused injuries including concussions and nerve damage, the agency found.
Avoiding a costly recall of the minivan was one of a number of “wins” in safety cases that saved the carmaker $255 million, according to a memo obtained by a congressional panel investigating the recalls of 8 million Toyotas for defects that caused accidental acceleration.
