This Toyota Rav4 suddenly accelerated on Colfax Ave in Denver last year. It hit two cars and a light pole and changed direction before it ultimately hit the side of a restaurant and came to rest.

Gilbert, Ollanik & Komyatte, PC represents the driver of this Toyota vehicle, and we are handling other Toyota/Lexus SUA claims around the country.

RUNAWAY TOYOTA AND LEXUS VEHICLES:

THE FULL STORY HAS NOT BEEN TOLD

Runaway Toyota and Lexus vehicles have now been linked to hundreds of crashes and reportedly over 50 deaths, including the tragic death of a California highway patrolman and three members of his family. The death toll is likely to grow as more incidents get reported and given that millions of potentially defective Toyota and Lexus vehicles remain on our roads.

After multiple hearings before Congress, during which the public heard extensive testimony from the President of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood as well as independent safety experts, American consumers still do not have a satisfactory answer as to the cause or causes of the thousands of sudden unintended acceleration incidents involving Toyota and Lexus vehicles. It is becoming increasingly clear that the problem is not just due to floor mats and sticky accelerator pedals, which are the subject of Toyota's two ongoing recalls.

Floor Mats and Sticky Pedals. There is growing reason to be concerned that Toyota has not adequately addressed the causes of sudden unintended acceleration in its vehicles. While Toyota has instituted one recall relating to its all weather floor mats in certain models and another recall relating to sticky accelerator pedals in other models, the recalls appear inadequate on their face. Of the over 2,000 reports of suddenly accelerating Toyota and Lexus vehicles documented to date, over half of those incidents concern vehicle models that are not on either Toyota recall list. These statistics indicate that the current recalls are simply not enough to address the underlying problem.

An electronic cause? There is growing suspicion that an electronic cause could be behind many of the sudden unintended acceleration incidents. Toyota had extensively adopted a fully electronic throttle system - known as the Electronic Throttle Control-intelligent (ETCS-i) throttle - by 2002. Unlike the previous system, the ETCS-i system controls the engine's throttle by electronic signals sent from a sensor that detects the position of the gas pedal. The system is fully electronic - there is no "fail safe" mechanical linkage between the gas pedal and the engine throttle control. Incidents of sudden unintended acceleration are disproportionately concentrated among vehicle models containing the ETCS-i system. This suggests that the electronic throttle control system may be causing or contributing to the problem.