Federal Government Seeking Maximum $16M Penalty Against Toyota

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Fox News-AP

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Transportation Department says it is seeking the maximum penalty of $16 million against Toyota for failing to notify the government promptly about defective gas pedals among its vehicles.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says the department has evidence that Toyota knew of the problem with sticking accelerators in late September but did not recall cars until late January.

The fine would be the largest civil penalty ever issued to an automaker by the government.

Toyota has two weeks to accept or contest the $16.375 million penalty.



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/05/federal-government-seeking-maximum-m-penalty-toyota/

[jody]

1. Remaining question, is $16.375 million the max any corporation can be punished by our Federal Govt.

for murdering many people?

[MilesColtrane]

2. But Ray LaHood was one of those bipartisan Cabinet appointments that showed what an...

ideological sell out Obama is.

Either the Pres. was right about Hood's qualification and character for the job, or he's directly issuing LaHood his marching orders on this matter.

Either way, I like it.

[skipos]

3. kick. nt

[Metta]

4. This is a slap on the wrist. A disappointing gesture.

Moreso, since everyone knew awhile back.

[Cal Carpenter]

5. And it's purely monetary. The people involved are protected by the corporation

People died. Yet this is purely a financial 'punishment', there are no criminal penalties. It's a 'civil' matter. Right.

It becomes so abstract.

It's absurd.

[dencol]

6. It rewards Toyota's bad behavior.

Cutting corners can become a business calculation when a corporation knows it will only face little sanctions for violating laws.

[liberal N proud]

7. It's only money to Toyota

They will gladly pay it and continue business as usual.

[Tansy_Gold]

10. Cost benefit analysis -- Toyota learned too well from Ford

from our dear friend Mother Jones back in october 1977 --


http://motherjones.com/politics/1977/09/pinto-madness



Ford knows the Pinto is a firetrap, yet it has paid out millions to settle damage suits out of court, and it is prepared to spend millions more lobbying against safety standards. With a half million cars rolling off the assembly lines each year, Pinto is the biggest-selling subcompact in America, and the company's operating profit on the car is fantastic. Finally, in 1977, new Pinto models have incorporated a few minor alterations necessary to meet that federal standard Ford managed to hold off for eight years. Why did the company delay so long in making these minimal, inexpensive improvements?

■Ford waited eight years because its internal "cost-benefit analysis," which places a dollar value on human life, said it wasn't profitable to make the changes sooner.






Tansy Gold

[JPerz]

8. 16m outrageous

It's outrageous what corporate entities get away with. 16 million the max? 1.6 billion would be a better attitude adjustment...

[strategery blunder]

9. Why the fuck isn't the maximum penalty $16 BILLION!? nt

[SpartanDem]

11. Toyota fined $16.4M, accused of hiding defect

Source: Detroit Free Press

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration today fined Toyota $16.4 million for a four-month delay in announcing defective accelerator pedals in 2.3 million vehicles that could trigger sudden acceleration -- and warned that more could be coming.

The fine, the largest ever levied by U.S. auto safety regulators against an automaker, forces Toyota to either accept a government judgment that it ignored U.S. consumer complaints of a safety problem or fight a high-profile court battle with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The world's largest automaker declined to say what its next step would be.

The U.S. Department of Transportation said Toyota knew about the pedal defect at least as early as Sept. 29, when it told dealers in Canada and 31 countries in Europe how to handle customer complaints about the problem and fix the pedals.

In January, the automaker told NHTSA about the problem and issued a recall, revealing that the first complaints had been heard from customers as far back as 2007. It had changed the materials used to build the pedals in production twice -- once in February 2008, and again in August of last year -- without issuing a recall. And in its official notice to U.S. regulators, Toyota did not reveal the September bulletin to dealers outside the United States.



Read more: http://freep.com/article/20100405/BUSINESS01/100405049/1318/Toyota-fined-16.4M-accused-of-hiding-defect

---

Good. I only wish it could've been more money.

[Heywood J]

12. How many cars is that?

About an hour on the production line? Two hours? This is like fining NASA $500 for littering.

[toopers]

13. Why wouldn't the government penalize one of their competitors?

eom

[Xenotime]

14. Not high enough. It's time to close the company down and sell off their stuff.