In the examination of 58 Toyota/Lexus vehicles which crashed in the US under so-called 'sudden acceleration', a US government investigation has found no evidence of problems in the accelerator electronics. And in 35 of these, the brakes had not been applied by the driver.
In the preliminary report to the US Congress, investigators also found that in only one instance was an accelerator pedal trapped under a floor mat, while there were no instances in which the pedal became stuck or sprang back too slowly.
Toyota itself has conducted more than 4,000 on-site vehicle inspections related to claims of unintended acceleration and in no case has the company found electronic throttle controls to be the cause.
The company believes that many of the reported incidents were because drivers hit the wrong pedal when trying to brake.
It did find cases of 'sticky' accelerators and pedal entrapment under floor mats, the potential for which have been dealt with under the global recalls.
