Brake Override Technology Lacking in Toyota

Toyota Motor Corp. has been sued by lawyers for the automaker’s resistance to installing a brake override technology system that they say would have prevented deaths and injuries.

Attorneys are seeking unspecified damages against the Japanese automaker, alleging that Toyota and Lexus vehicles prone to unwanted acceleration caused hundreds of injuries and deaths in accidents over the past decade. Toyota has settled at least one case so far, paying $10 million to the families of four people killed when a Lexus ES accelerated out of control near San Diego in 2009.

Brake override is an electronic fail-safe that automatically releases the throttle when a car’s onboard computer senses that the brake is depressed. Designed for cars with electronic throttle control, which use wires and software rather than mechanical cables to connect the gas pedal to the engine, it has been available for nearly a decade.

Other carmakers, including Nissan, Volkswagen, BMW and Chrysler, have been using brake override for years. Plaintiffs’ lawyers said that fact, combined with statistics from government safety databases showing lower levels of sudden-acceleration complaints for vehicles with brake override, will be central to their cases.

Lawyers also plan to cite company documents indicating that Toyota resisted overtures from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to install the technology.