Toyota has won a verdict in a case over acceleration problems that caused a New York doctor to crash into a tree.
A federal jury found on Friday that the motor corporation is not responsible for the accident after deliberating for two hours. The case was the first to be decided after Toyota's 2009 recall of millions of vehicles in relation to manufacturing defects.
The plaintiff in the case, a trauma doctor who was driving a 2005 Scion, claimed that the sudden acceleration that caused his accident was due to defective floor mats or to a defective electronic throttle control system, Reuters reports. He also said that Toyota failed to install a brake override system that could have prevented the accident.
The automotive giant countered by saying the doctor caused the crash himself by stepping on the accelerator rather than the brake. The US Magistrate overseeing the case disallowed evidence on the vehicles electronic system to be presented at the trial.
"Toyota is pleased that the jury found no merit to this unintended acceleration claim," the company said, calling the verdict an important benchmark. Representatives noted the the plaintiff's inability to identify a specific defect that caused the problem.
The Reuters article reports that hundreds of lawsuits have been filed by individual owners against Toyota, alleging that their vehicles sped up without warning.
At the time of the article, attorneys for the plaintiff had not yet announced a decision about whether or not to appeal.
