In the past 10 years, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received nearly 3,100 complaints about sudden acceleration issues in Toyota vehicles. Those complaints alleged 93 deaths, but the Administration has confirmed a direct link in just five of them.
The issue made headlines in 2009 after a wrongly installed floor mat on a loaner Lexus ES caused the vehicle to crash, resulting in the death of the driver and his three passengers.
Toyota was forced to recall 7.1 million vehicles in the U.S. and another 5.3 in the rest of the world over the issue and was slapped with US$70 million in fines by the NHTSA as it failed to recall the affected vehicles on time.
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