Thursday, March 11, 2004 | 11:04 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- A federal investigation into acceleration problems on Toyota Camrys might provide a new answer as to why a Las Vegas couple's car drove off the fourth floor of a downtown parking garage in January.
The Office of Defects Investigation launched a preliminary evaluation last week into the throttle control system of 2002 and 2003 Toyota Camrys, Toyota Camry Solaras and the Lexus ES300, also made by Toyota.
At least 37 complaints have been filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on the vehicles, with 30 reports about crashes or fires and five about incidents resulting in injuries, according to the office.
The evaluation notice says the cars have an electronic throttle control system that uses a sensor on the gas pedal to signal its position. A control unit receives the signal and then controls the throttle, which controls the speed.
The agency said the complaints say the cars will "suddenly and unexpectedly surge or accelerate" for a short time. It can occur more than once or when the driver is using the brake or using cruise control.
The crash in downtown Las Vegas killed Las Vegans George Yago, 83, and his wife Maureen Yago, 79, last month.
The Las Vegas couple died after they pulled into a parking space but then "for unknown reasons, the car accelerated up and over the curb stop," off the fourth floor parking lot at the Golden Nugget, according to the police report.
A heart attack initially had been suggested as the cause, but police later said George Yago probably mistook the gas pedal for the brake pedal and accidentally accelerated enough to drive through the wall.
A Toyota spokesman, John Hanson, said Wednesday he did not know if the Las Vegas incident would be part of the investigation and that Toyota is just beginning its internal audit.
This stage of the federal investigation will study Toyota's failure reports and see if the system can cause "unwanted acceleration," the agency said.
The investigation notice does not list any fatalities as a result of the potential throttle problems.
The couple's son, George Yago of Camarillo, Calif., said his parents never told him of any type of problems with the car and that he never experienced the problem with them while visiting.
His wife, Cathie Yago, said the car did not have a black box, a device that could record the last moments in a car before an accident, but the federal agency did examine the car before releasing it to the insurance company.
"As far as the police are concerned his case is closed," she said.
But the complaints filed with the federal agency mirror what police and witnesses described at the Yago's accident scene.
One complaint notes: "I was backing out and turning 90 degrees from a parking space at my apartment when the engine in my 2002 Camry began to surge. I could not stop my Camry by applying the brakes, and it backed into a GMC-Somona (sic) truck."
Complaints filed with the agency can be anonymous, but Visalia, Calif., resident Joan Marschall, who filed a complaint on her 2003 Camry in February, called Metro Police as soon as she heard about the accident.
Marschall, 72, and her husband have not driven the car since Dec. 22, she said.
"I can't trade that car and I can't sell that car," Marschall said. "It looks perfect but could kill someone tomorrow."
Marschall said that at the end of November, she and her husband were in their car getting ready to pull out of a parking space. She said he turned on the ignition while pressing on the brake to shift into drive. As he did this "the engine revved up and the car lurched forward fast," Marschall said. Her husband pushed on the brake again, then turned the car off to stop it. It did the same thing a second time but by the third time the car appeared fine and they drove off.
The car had 14,000 miles on it at the time and no other problems. They took it to a Toyota dealership, but servicemen there nothing wrong.
"After that I just put it in the back of my mind. It ran so well and I love the car," she said.
Three weeks and 400 miles later Marschall was pulling into another parking space. As she put her foot on the brake for the last time before shifting into park, the engine revved again and sped up enough to pull the car over the small concrete parking barrier. Marschall said she knows she did not hit the wrong pedal and had just enough room and time to swerve to avoid hitting a pole.
"I sat and shook for a long time," she said.
She took it back to the Toyota dealer. The service managers there have driven it but the problem has not reoccurred, she said.
"I won't take that car off the lot," Marschall said. "I could kill somebody."
Marschall said Toyota has agreed to buy the car back under California "lemon laws." She said the dealership drove it 600 additional miles and ran numerous tests but never found any problem. They eventually drove it back to her garage after a month. It is still sitting there as a "perch for my cat" until Toyota comes and picks it up.
She talked with an official from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for about 30 minutes a few weeks ago. She said the investigator told her at that time that an investigation was going to start.
Marschall said she realizes it may never be know what actually happened to the Yagos but at least the investigation may prevent anyone else from getting hurt.
"I will never be persuaded that that is not what happened," she said. "I told the police, 'Don't discount it.' "
Her neighbor heard about the Yagos' accident on the radio and called his wife to tell Marschall right away.
"Had we hit somebody or had the car been badly damaged, people probably would have attributed it to that, saying, 'Oh these people are past their prime,"' Marschall said. "It's not fair."
A March 2003 complaint filed with federal authorities said a similar occurrence "totaled" a 2002 Camry.
"While car was being backed down a driveway at 2-3 mph with driver's foot on brake backing out of the driveway, the car accelerated suddenly and uncontrollably backward for about 66 feet and crashed into a tree. The car then somehow surged forward for about 132 feet," the complaint says.
In another complaint, a driver suffered bruises and glass shards in her eyes after the "vehicle accelerated to maximum speed" in a parking lot. It also jumped a parking curb and hit two other cars.
Meanwhile, some complaints also filed with the administration on the 2002 Camrys claim the brake and gas pedals are too close together, so when one gets pressed that other can be pushed down too.
Administration spokeswoman Liz Neblett said someone monitors the complaints to look for patterns or trends.
"Sometimes one complaint will do it and sometimes 100 complaints won't do it," Neblett said. "If there is a problem with any safety-related thing, we want to hear about it."
Consumers can call, write or e-mail the agency with specific details on their problems.
The complaints and a petition to review the problems prompted the review, according to the agency.
Other searches within the agency's complaints showed similar complaints of sudden acceleration for a 2002 Toyota Corolla and three for a 2002 Ford Taurus.
After reviewing the stories of the accident just after it happened and the complaints filed at the agency, Toyota spokesman Sam Butto compared it to the accidents in California and Florida last year where elderly drivers had problems with the gas pedals.
"We've never really seen or found a problem as far as this vehicle goes," Butto said.
Butto said the company sells about 400,000 Camrys per year.
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