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\u201cThe verdict is in. There is no electronic-based cause for unintended high-speed acceleration in Toyotas,\u201d said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in February, 2011 upon releasing\u00a0an exhaustive study<\/a>\u00a0by NHTSA and NASAabsolving Toyota of allegations<\/a>\u00a0its vehicles were unsafe.<\/p>\n Three years later, the U.S. Justice Department this week fined Toyota a record $1.2 billion for failing to warn customers of unsafe vehicles.<\/p>\n Huh? Americans can be excused if they feel they\u2019ve fallen down Alice\u2019s rabbit hole.<\/p>\n \u201cThe problems gained public attention (in 2009) when a highway patrolman and his family were killed in an accident in San Diego,\u201d\u00a0reported a Reuters story<\/a>\u00a0typical of media coverage. \u201cToyota responded with a recall of millions of vehicles but left on the road some vehicles. . . having among the worst problems with floor mats that trapped acceleration pedals.\u201d<\/p>\n Like pictures Photoshopped of their most critical details, these reports rewrite history. As such they are cover for a Justice Department kangaroo court that handed down fines bearing little relation to the original allegations against Toyota.<\/p>\n In truth federal probes were part of a massive effort by the trial-lawyer community, the\u00a0safety advocates they fund, and Democratic politicians to open a broad new litigation front against Toyota (and by extension all automakers) claiming that buggy electronic throttle controls cause deadly, unintended acceleration.<\/p>\n Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.)\u00a0called 2010 House hearings to take \u201ca serious look at the possibility that electronic defects could be causing the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n And tort lawyer\u2013funded safety advocate Clarence Ditlow of the Center for Auto Safety told a Senate hearing that \u201cthe Toyota unintended acceleration crisis\u201d had been caused by \u201celectronic controls.\u201d<\/p>\n The circus hearings paralleled a media panic that featured almost daily claims of electronically\u00a0induced sudden acceleration accidents \u2014 including footage of a \u201crunaway\u201d Toyota Prius in San Diego that gripped cable news and a faked report by ABC\u2019s Brian Ross alleging how Toyotas could accelerate without warning.<\/p>\n Toyota denied any electronic defects, instead claiming \u2014 to widespread Washington snickering \u2014 the incidents were caused by faulty floor mats, a sticky plastic pedal piece, or pedal misapplication (i.e., mistaking accelerator for brake). In late 2009 and early 2010, Toyota announced two recalls totaling nearly 7 million vehicles to replace floor mats and the plastic piece. The company also revamped its U.S. safety management admitting it had grown complacent in the face of customer concerns.<\/p>\n A year later,\u00a0the NHTSA\/NAA study<\/a>\u00a0of Event Data Recorders (a.k.a., the \u201cblack boxes\u201d found in modern cars)\u00a0confirmed Toyotas were mechanically sound<\/a>.<\/p>\n While a handful of incidents involved accelerator-trapping floor mats,\u00a0NHTSA said<\/a>it \u201cbelieves that the most likely cause of (most) incidents was pedal misapplication.\u201d The tragic death of the officer and his family? The result of a dealer having installed the wrong floor mat in a loaner Lexus ES350 sedan. The family makes up four of five confirmed Toyota vehicle deaths (the fifth also allegedly floor mat related).<\/p>\n Yet Holder & media have ignored this history.<\/p>\n Incredibly, this week\u2019s coverage approvingly quoted discredited former NHTSA chief Joan Colebrook\u00a0\u2013 whose Carter-era airbag mandate for front seat passengers led to dozens of child deaths \u2013\u00a0who told Reuters that the Justice fine \u201cmeans at the highest levels of the auto company, they have to worry about going to jail if they don\u2019t report a defect.\u201d<\/p>\n Having invested so much into charging Toyota with fictional electronic gremlins, Washington\u2019s Iron Triangle \u2014 Justice, media, and safety lobby \u2014 convicted the company anyway.<\/p>\n Significantly, Toyota\u00a0admitted no wrongdoing<\/a>\u00a0in an opaque public statement accepting Holder\u2019s penalty. Profitable and with its Lexus and Toyota brands ranked Nos. 1 and \u00a02\u00a0by\u00a0Consumer Reports<\/em><\/a>\u00a0for reliability, the company has made a calculation to put Justice\u2019s Inquisition behind it.<\/p>\n