Toyota by the Numbers
At least 34 people have died in accidents involving Toyota vehicles that allegedly accelerated out of control in the past decade. The number seems to jump higher the more publicity is given to these “freak” accidents.
Thirty-four is an awful number. But we need to put this in perspective. In the last decade over 400,000 people died in traffic accidents. That’s about the same number as the total number of American soldiers that died during World War II. The number of injuries is over 18 million, which is staggering.
The “Traffic Safety Facts 2008,” issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation, reports 37,261 fatal traffic victims and 2,346,000 injuries in 2008 alone. The economic cost of these accidents is estimated to be over 230 billion dollars.
There were 20,553 fatal single-vehicle crashes and 546,000 single-vehicle injury crashes.
But many questions have not been answered yet.
Toyota may be to blame for those 34 deaths during 10 years — 3.4 on average per year — but it may be necessary to ask for an analysis of the 20,553 fatal single-vehicle crashes in 2008. How many different carmakers were involved? How many are known to be “freak accidents,” and how many of these were connected to a Toyota-built car? Are the products of the other carmakers without faulty systems? Projected over a decade, about 200,000 fatal single-vehicle crashes happened. In this period, 34 people died in “out of control” accidents involving Toyota cars.
In an item by Consumer Reports about the high number of Toyota “out of control” incidents, the following remark also raises questions:
Looking at all complaints on 2008 models through November, we find that Toyota had a significant increase after the media attention following the California tragedy and the company’s safety advisory mailings to owners. In November, the total count for Toyota and Lexus rises to 80 incidents, representing 48 percent of the complaints from all brands.
Why this sudden rise of complaints? Are Toyota cars suddenly more unreliable after October, or is the suggestion created by media attention so strong that drivers feel less safe?
Toyota builds rings around Gov Motors. The grand standing by the Senate is just that. The Senators welcome anything that takes the spotlight off their pathetic failures over the past year.
They sit there in their “Hearings” like they are saving the world from the evil car company … they are a load of Cr*p.
There should be a bunch of them in fed prison right now as a result of the Fannie Mae Freddie Mac debacle.
But not a single one of the sob’s has been held accountable for their part in causing the problems we now face.
And there they still sit, mugging for the cameras like their s^^t don’t stink.
Americans are waking up to the real problem and the political class is scared…. they should be..
Mr. de Winter, on its face your article seems to say that more analysis is required of the situation before unilaterally condemning Toyota. I would tend to agree with you. However, and this is a great big however, the US was third (THIRD!) in line for fixes when Toyota already knew of, and made repairs to, vehicles in Japan and Europe.
Now, to you 34 deaths is an unimportant, statistical anomaly, unworthy of even the most minor amount of attention. After all, your fallacious argument goes, lots of people also died from other causes. That’s comparing bananas to lightbulbs – no comparison exists, except in your tortured logic.
Next, what really shows your bias is the snide use of the term “Government Motors”. Yes, GM should not have received public money – no argument. Does that even relate to this discussion? The bad bankruptcy handling of one company is not an issue, even remotely related, to the safety issues of another company. Your conflation of the two demonstrates sloppy rthetoric, distinct bias and a lack of basic journalistic (and human) integrity.
I’m not defending GM, but I am awfully tired of appeals to emotion, appeals to ignorance and downright intellectual fraud masquerading as “reasoned thought”. You’ve written a badly-argued, poorly-constructed hit-piece here and, if you were half the man you pretend to be, you’d recognize it.
More’s the pity – primarily because you preceive your arguments have merit. Frankly, your opinions look like the rantings of a child.
The snotty ad hominems may begin now…..
@faulttolerant:
I too am tired of appeals to emotion, and frankly that’s what all the hoopla about Toyota has amounted to. It is intellectual fraud while Mr. Winter’s article clearly shows that I’m not alone in wondering why 34 deaths, no matter how tragic, is statistically significant. Without a study done on GM, Ford, et. al. we have no information to properly condemn Toyota.
@ 2. faultolerant: Ad Hominem Ranting
well, yes, on your part.
If Toyota’s Japanese workers voted in US elections,
or its US workers were unionized, we would hear a
different narrative from msm.gov.
1.3 million GM cars were recalled. I want Congressional hearings…..
There certainly needs to be more investigation before Toyota is thrown into the dumpster! I myself own one and have had it for two years with absolutely no problems. The reason people got fed up with GM was that the cars had a tendency to just go from one repair to another after they had a little milage on them. Who wants that when they can get other cars, also made in the US, that are more reliable. Both Toyota and Honda have very dependable cars and they seem to last forever! And those are facts. And by the way, I think we American taxpayers deserve thank-you notes from GM. After all, we are the reason they are still alive.
If its union-made, it will never be in my garage. Unions and their bloated pensions, outrageous benefits and mediocre at best efficiency are what brought our car industry to its knees; they are the reason our education system sucks ass; and they are the primary reason why our local and state budgets are a train wreck.
“Yes, GM should not have received public money – no argument. Does that even relate to this discussion?”
Yes. GM was not simply bailed out: it is now *owned* by the government and the UAW, as is Chrysler. This means that the Obama administration and Big Labor have a direct financial interest in taking down a major competitor.
I will continue to by Toyota. I gave up on American cars in the 70′s when they spent more time in the shop than on the road. So far my Toyota has not exploded like its American counterpart. Notice the govenment didn’t make much of an issue over that. We should be ashamed of what our government is doing here. Also, consider the last time we made the Japs loose face like with Mr. Toyoda, we had WWII.
Are you kidding me? Last week I went out and traded in my GM car for a Toyota! No way am I going to let them cow me or fool me or get away with this… much as I know I’m one small person, at least I can sleep at night knowing I ‘voted with my wallet’…
The Old Marxist Media declares a crisis, and the sheeple quake. Keeping my toyota–will buy another when the time comes. I believe the government is assisting government motors by hurting the market leader.
1.3 million cars recalled by GM. Bring the CEO up in front of the Congress and find out what he knew and when he knew it.
Then, repeal any favors that GM has been provided by the US taxpayer.
Oh, I forgot, governmnet Motors does not have to perform as well as its rivals.
Watch out Ford you could be next.
A lot of information is missing here. How many accidents were there for all manufacturers that were blamed on a freakish malfunction in an otherwise well-maintained car? Maybe there is nothing unusual about Toyota once you remove the “copycat” incident reporters.
Also if there was in fact a defect that we want to blame for these incidents, then why weren’t they more frequent? 34 is incredibly tiny number compared to the millions and millions of trips taken in Toyotas by the world population.
How does Toyota’s electronic fuel metering system differ from the others? These things are all designed to “fail safe” meaning that if they cannot perform as expected, the fuel can’t flow. How does Toyota explain how those measures were defeated?
I would have appreciated some real impartial investigation because it doesn’t seem to be coming from the MSM or the government.
I was an instructor in the AARP Driver Safety program. An activity I used (not a part of the official class material) simulated braking response to demonstrate reaction time. There were individuals that braked with their left foot. I discouraged this for the reason that in an emergency situation under stress it would be highly possible to push both feet down thereby braking and accelerating. Depending on which foot won, braking or accelerating could result.
Ford sales up 44% last month.