The 37-year-old driver, whose identity was withheld because no charges have been filed, told police he pressed on the brakes but they didn't work, causing the Prius to hit a car stopping for a red light.
Two people in that car were slightly injured in the accident, which resulted in two other cars getting bumped at an intersection in Matsudo city, northeast of Tokyo. Data from an event recorder, or "black box," in the Prius sent to a laboratory for analysis found the brakes were working properly, police said today.
The 3rd-generation Prius has been recalled in Japan and overseas because of a flaw in the antilock braking that made the brakes momentarily unresponsive under some driving conditions.
Some drivers in the US have complained about Toyota vehicles, including the Prius, speeding up on their own. An Associated Press analysis of US government data found more than 100 reports of repaired cars continuing to accelerate on their own. Consumer complaints about runaway Toyota models have been rising in Japan, especially for the Prius, according to government data.
Rectification work being carried out on a Japanese Prius after the recall. - AP
The charge that Japanese police are recommending in the Prius accident is negligent driving resulting in damage or injury. It carries a maximum punishment of seven years' imprisonment and a fine of 1mil yen (US$11,000).
But prosecutors may decide against pressing charges because the injuries were not serious and the two injured people are not demanding charges, police said. The automaker inspected the vehicle in the presence of police and could find nothing wrong.
Transport Ministry official Kazumi Furukawa said the government has also conducted tests on the Prius in the Matsudo accident and found no braking problems. But the government is continuing an investigation for possible defects, including 13 other consumer complaints, and has not ruled out additional recalls, Furukawa said, while refusing to elaborate.
As is customary with criminal cases in Japan, police sent documents from its investigation into the Prius accident to the prosecutors' office earlier this month. Japanese prosecutors do not comment on ongoing cases until charges are filed.
Separately, Kentaro Kai, another ministry official, said Japan may start requiring all automakers to install a backup technology allowing brakes to override acceleration. The move underlines growing concern in Japan about Toyota's recalls, widely seen as a stain on the nation's manufacturing prowess.
Toyota has said it will install brake override in all future models and retroactively on some models already on the roads.
Meanwhile, in the US, computer data from a Prius that crashed in suburban New York City show that at the time of the accident the throttle was open and the driver was not applying the brakes, US safety officials said yesterday.
The disclosure prompted an angry response from the police captain investigating the cause of the accident. He said his probe was not over and driver error had not been established.
"For any agency to release data and to draw conclusions without consulting with the law enforcement agency that brought this to light could be self-serving," said Capt. Anthony Marraccini of the Harrison, New York, force.
A housekeeper driving the car on Mar 9 told police that it sped up on its own down a driveway, despite her braking, and crashed into a stone wall across the street. She was not seriously hurt.
The Prius involved in the NY accident. - AP
The Prius hasn't been recalled for sticky accelerators. However, the car involved in the accident under investigation had been repaired for the floor mat problem. Technicians from Toyota and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the police department's own consultants examined the wrecked 2005 Prius outside police headquarters in Harrison on Wed, with the NHTSA also interviewing the driver.
The NHTSA said information from the car's computer systems indicated there was no application of the brakes and the throttle was fully open. It did not elaborate. The Prius is equipped with an event data recorder, or "black box" designed to record the state of the car at the moment of the impact.
Marraccini cautioned that even if NHTSA's disclosure is accurate, "This is a snapshot. This is not the total investigation." He said the Harrison police have not closed their investigation or examined all data that was retrieved.
Earlier, the captain also criticised Toyota for announcing the evidence was "conclusive" and for providing him with data from the recorder but not the software he needed to read it. "You can't open it, you can't read it, you can't do anything with it," Marraccini said.
Toyota spokesman Wade Hoyt said later that the company was arranging for the police to get temporary access to the needed software "at a reduced cost." He said it typically costs about US$7,000 but is also available on a temporary basis for US$50.
In a report earlier this month, The Associated Press found that for years, Toyota has blocked access to data stored in the "black boxes" that could explain crashes blamed on sudden unintended acceleration. Marraccini said police would be meeting again Friday with Toyota and he believed the company would cooperate fully. - AP
