An Oklahoma jury has ordered a $3 million verdict against Toyota in a sudden acceleration crash case.
The jury has awarded $1.5 million as monetary damages to Jean Bookout, who was driving her Toyota Camry and was injured in the crash and $1.5 million to the family of Barbara Schwarz, who was the passenger. Schwarz died in the car crash.
Bookout's lawyer stated that in September 2007, Bookout was driving her 2005 Camry, which suddenly went out of control as she was exiting a highway. Bookout could not stop her car and it crashed, killing her friend and passenger Schwarz and injuring her.
Japanese automaker Toyota denied that there were any faults in Bookout's Camry. However, the Oklahoma City state court jury overruled Toyota's defense and announced the verdict against the car maker.
The case of Bookout v. Toyota Corp. is one of the many lawsuits filed against the company in the U.S. Many complainants have stepped forward, contending that Toyota's vehicles can accelerate accidentally, which may result in an injury to the driver and passengers of the car.
"There have been approximately 200 proposed class actions and more than 500 individual cases filed against Toyota since February 2009 over the alleged acceleration issues, according to a recent company regulatory filing," per a Reuters report.
The Bookout case is the first against the company where the jury was convinced by arguments that a defect in the car's electronic throttle-control system was to be blamed for the car crash.
It will be interesting to see if the ruling has any impact on Toyota's car sales in the U.S.
