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Ed Towns Corners Toyota on Whistle Blower Documents

Although when the Biller incident happened last year, Toyota somehow managed to avoid being caught dirty handed, all the attention it received due to the huge recall of late 2009 - early 2010 brought Biller and his infamous documents back into the spot light.

Unfortunately, it would appear the documents do indeed show Toyota withheld information regarding some rollover incidents involving its vehicles.

At least this is what Ed Towns, D-NY, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said. According to Towns, the documents "indicate Toyota deliberately withheld records that it was legally required to produce in response to discovery orders in litigation... "

"The documents concern 'rollover' cases in which a driver or passenger was injured, including cases where victims were paralyzed."


"The Biller documents indicate Toyota's systematic disregard for the law and routine violation of court discovery orders in litigation... Moreover, this also raises very serious questions as to whether Toyota has also withheld substantial, relevant information from NHTSA."

The documents came back into the spotlight last week, when a House panel subpoenaed the confidential internal documents Biller claimed refer to the cover up.

The House Oversight Committee issued the subpoena as part of its investigation of Toyota's sudden acceleration investigation, which will culminate with the Congressional hearing on February 24.

Last week, one of Biller's documents indicated the Japanese carmaker saved some $100 million by convincing US regulators to put an end to the 2007 accelerator investigation and agree to a cheap fix for the problem.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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