In the news today: the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, plans to seek the maximum penalty of $16.375 million against Toyota for its sticky accelerator pedals. The government agency claims that the automaker didn't send notification of the safety defect on time; such notices must be sent within five business days.
NHTSA is saying that Toyota knew about the problems as early as September 29, 2009, and if that's true, then there should be stiff penalties: you can't keep quiet about safety recalls.
But what I found unusual is that NHTSA launched its investigation into the scope and timeliness of the recalls on February 16, 2010. And on April 5, 2010, having received 70,000 pages of documents from Toyota, NHTSA has decided to demand the penalty.
Counting weekends and holidays, that's 49 days. When in your life did you ever see a government agency move that fast?
On top of it, NHTSA is saying that September 29 is the day that Toyota sent recall repair procedures to 31 European countries and to Canada. Except that Toyota Canada says it received no such communication on that date.
I've heard a lot of rumblings about conspiracy theories -- that the U.S. government, having a substantial stake in two domestic automakers, wouldn't mind levelling or even tilting the playing field a little. And for the most part, I've treated such conspiracy theories as wishful thinking from the tinfoil-hat crowd.
Still, after just a month and a half of investigation, and NHTSA's statement that it's still looking through the 70,000 pages of documents, and an accusation that the Canadian arm says is incorrect ... well, if Toyota is guilty of the charges, it needs to have that and more levied against it. But it sure does seem like the U.S. government is accelerating more rapidly than I think I've ever seen before.
