Filed under: Government/Legal, Recalls, Toyota



What's that, a scandal?!?!?! Time for everyone and their mother's legislator to seek the spotlight at Toyota's expense. This time it's House Representative Ed Towns, D-N.Y., who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. He's scheduled a hearing on Toyota's current recall for defective accelerator pedal mechanisms for February 4th, the second hearing scheduled so far after the House Energy and Commerce Committee scheduled a separate hearing yesterday for February 25th.

This time, however, it's not so much Toyota on the hot seat as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Towns sent an invitation for the hearing to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today that details exactly what the committee wants discussed. Included are:

• What is the scope of DOT's investigation into this matter and what are the preliminary findings?
• What makes and models does DOT currently believe have a gas pedal problem and what are its possible causes?
• If consumers are driving any of the recalled models, what steps should they be taking to ensure their safety?
• What steps are DOT and Toyota taking to alert consumers that this problem may affect a vehicle they are currently using?
• What steps are being taken to ensure that the problem is being corrected?

There are many unanswered questions surrounding this recall, some of which may be answered in either or both of these hearings. In the meantime, shares of Toyota Motor Company continue to fall in the wake of the recall, some 16.7 percent over the last five days.

[Sources: The Detroit News, Automotive News - sub. req. | Image: Mark Wilson/Getty]Continue reading Second House hearing on Toyota pedal recal scheduled for Feb. 5

Second House hearing on Toyota pedal recal scheduled for Feb. 5 originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



Permalink | Email this | Comments

More...