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Toyota update: hotlines in meltdown

By Lucy Halfhead on Friday 5 February 2010

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The crisis at Toyota deepened yesterday as pressure mounted for it to recall its flagship ‘green' car, the Prius, over brake problems.

Sources said 270,000 of the petrol-electric hybrids worldwide may have to be checked.

Investigations of the female drivers' favourite, driven by the likes of Renée Zellweger, have been ordered in the U.S. and Japan although British ministers have not so far followed suit.

The world's biggest car firm has already recalled eight million vehicles over fears that two separate faults with accelerator pedals have left them unsafe.

Last night it emerged that 270 Toyotas here have been reported as having the potentially lethal fault. Toyota said that it had confirmed 20 cases before announcing the recall, but another 250 were reported in the past week.

The first UK claim of a crash was made yesterday by a solicitor for an unnamed driver in the Midlands. ‘We understand the accelerator became stuck and he suffered injuries as a consequence. My client is receiving medical rehabilitation,' Ciaran McCabe at the Moore Blatch personal injury practice told the Guardian.

The news has triggered near-panic among owners, with warnings from lawyers that drivers could be prosecuted over crashes in the affected models. More than 10,000 motorists have tried to use Toyota's hotline and website and many complained lines were jammed.

Jon Williams, commercial director of Toyota GB, said the company was ‘truly sorry' it had let customers down, but insisted the cars were safe. He said: ‘I drive a Toyota, my family and friends drive Toyotas, and I wouldn't allow my loved ones to drive our cars if I didn't believe they were safe.'

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Friday 5 February 2010

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I have a toyota avensis, and have for the last 12 months. I have driven almost 20,000 miles in this car to date. However, when my car had driven only 800 miles I had 2 very scary moments on the motorway. The first time I was accelorating to overtake a lorry in the middle lane. I pulled out into the fast lane when my car lurched forward, the rev counter was up at the maximum , my accelorator was stuck to the floor, my breaks wouldnt work, and I could not even slow the car using the gears as they didnt work either. Somehow I managed to get onto the hard shoulder and brought the car to a stop by switching the ignition off and applying the handbreak. At that time I noticed my mat was stuck under the accelorator. I put this incident down to driver error. The second incident was a lot scarier. This time there was no mat in the footwell of the car. Again on the motorway, I was coming off the slip road onto the motorway and the same happened again. No breaks, no gears, and the accelorator was jammed to the floor. Dont know how I got onto the hard shoulder. I was really lucky there were no other cars around me at the time. I called the RAC and they took me to the nearest Toyota garage. Who could find nothing wrong with the car. I have not had any problems since at all with my car. And like I said before I have almost done 20,000 miles in this car.
I feel for Toyota, because I have always had toyota cars for their safety. Obviously there is big issues now and I hope they get it sorted before anyone else is killed or injured.
Comment by M on February 05 13:44