The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is determining whether to open a full-blown investigation into possible Honda Accord hybrid acceleration problems. An unidentified woman filed a complaint with the federal agency asking it to investigate after she was injured and her passenger died in a crash in her 2005 Accord Hybrid. She said that her car crashed into oncoming traffic after losing break power and accelerating on its own. Many documents on the NHTSA website indicate that several have been injured in similar accidents in these cars, according to the Boston Herald.
Similarly, Toyota has received thousands of unintended acceleration complaints in recent years. More specifically, since 1999, 2,262 incidents involving sudden and unintended acceleration of Toyota cars have been recorded. Last year alone, Toyota had to recall about 10 million vehicles, and after the recalls, Toyota faced hundreds of law suits. The unintended acceleration problem came under even more public scrutiny when an off -duty California police officer was recently killed in one of these crashes.
If the NHSTA decides to open the Honda investigation, the results should be interesting. In August, the agency released its preliminary findings about possible Toyota defects, and driver error (hitting the gas instead of the break) was determined to be the main cause of the failed breaks and unintended acceleration. So, time will tell whether these Hondas are defective in design or manufacture or whether drivers are misapplying the pedals.
Source: The Boston Herald, NHTSA reviews claim of Honda acceleration
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