7 Auto Insurers Suing Toyota

In response to hundreds of auto accidents caused by sudden acceleration difficulties in Toyota vehicles seven insurance companies are suing the Toyota Motor Corp. The insurance companies are American Automobile Insurance Co., Fireman's Fund Insurance, National Surety Corp., Ameriprise Insurance, IDS Property Casualty Insurance, Motorists Mutual Insurance and American Hardware Mutual Insurance.

The insurers cite data that blames 725 crashes on the rapid acceleration problem and fault the Japanese automaker for failing to equip its cars with an override system that would cause a car to idle if the brake and gas were deployed simultaneously. The insurers are seeking damages in excess of $230,000 from 14 crashes throughout the United States.

In response to the volume of crashes in January 2010 Toyota announced it would install brake override systems on all Toyota, Lexus and Scion vehicles by the end of 2010 to prevent unintended acceleration.

It seems that the insurers have a good chance of prevailing since Toyota has mitigated the problem by installing the override systems.

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