This could be a big save for Toyota! Toyota was cleared in a Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday for a fatal crash involving one of its cars, a case it hopes will be a bellwether for hundreds of other pending lawsuits alleging unintended acceleration.
Unlike many of the lawsuits, this 2009 fatal crash did not involve the vehicle’s driver. Rather, the unnamed driver, which the Associated Press reports is now 90 years old, struck and killed 66-year-old Noriko Uno. Uno’s family brought a $20 million lawsuit against Toyota and claimed that the driver’s 2006 Camry was defective because it did not have a brake-override system installed, a feature which Toyota made available as part of an earlier $1.1 billion settlement for owners of the nearly 9 million cars that were recalled over unintended acceleration and trapped gas pedals between October 2009 and June 2012.