According to a report yesterday in The Wall Street Journal, the Transportation Department has found evidence of possible driver error during its examination of dozens of black boxes from Toyota vehicles involved in accidents allegedly attributable to unintended acceleration. The findings have noted that, in many cases, the throttles were wide open and the brakes weren't engaged. However, that doesn't completely rule out manufacturer culpability.
According to the source article, while it's certainly true that some of the Lexus and Toyota drivers could have been accidentally flooring the accelerator, instead of the brake as they thought, the notorious one-two punch of "sticky" accelerator pedals that don't return to idle along with floor mats that can keep accelerators depressed, could also lead to that same outcome. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has refused to comment on the report, which was attributed to "people familiar with the findings." It is known, however, that Toyota itself is not involved in choosing the cases for the analysis or in interpreting the findings, and that NHTSA has identified driver error as the fault for several cases originally attributed to unintended acceleration during its ongoing investigation.
Whether driver error or a combination of sticky gas pedals and faulty floor mats led to these accidents, the initial findings do seem to support Toyota's unflagging assertion that the crashes were not caused by faulty software or electronic glitches. This fact has been acknowledged by NHTSA.
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