13 Mar 2010

California sues Toyota over defective vehicles

8:29 pm on 13 March 2010

Prosecutors in California are suing the world's largest carmaker, Toyota, over allegations that it knowingly sold hundreds of thousands of defective vehicles.

The Japanese firm says it's developed a solution to the defects, which triggered the recall of more than eight-million vehicles worldwide.

Regulators have linked five deaths to crashes allegedly caused by accelerator problems and are investigating dozens of others.

The BBC reports that the company said it had not been served with the lawsuit and would not comment.

The Orange Country district attorney, Tony Rackauckas, says Toyota knowingly sold cars and trucks with defects that caused Toyotas to accelerate suddenly and uncontrollably.

He said Toyota has known about the defects but intentionally did not disclose them to California purchasers.