Let us take a moment and reflect on the days of being a teenager. Consider a 15-year-old. From the moment one turns 15, the one thing that is on any teenager’s mind is that in just one year, they will be granted the ultimate freedom — a driver’s license.
Parents and other authorities informed new drivers that driving is indeed a privilege not to be taken for granted.
For the average college student, however, it has been roughly five to ten years since they have gained such a privilege. For us, within these years, driving has transformed from a beautiful butterfly into a disgusting mosquito. At first, driving gave us proverbial wings. Now, it is just a burden.
From gas prices to speeding tickets, driving has lost its once attractive appeal. And to top all this off, we cannot even trust that the cars on the road are safe. We have Toyota to thank for that.
The Toyota scandal has definitely left a huge impact on the roads. The company has recalled more than eight million vehicles because of sudden-acceleration incidents resulting in injuries and about 50 deaths.
Caution is highly recommended when driving behind or in front of certain models. Such problems have changed non-Toyota owners’ driving behavior, who now automatically switch lanes when they see a Toyota in their rearview mirror — potentially causing more hazard on the road.
A resolution to all this chaos is much needed before more people start falsely claiming that their cars, too, have fallen victim to the faulty accelerators.
Lawsuits have been filed against Toyota because of all the damage the company’s cars have caused.
Approximately 100 federal suits will be heard in a California courtroom. Judge James V. Selna of Santa Ana has been appointed by the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to hear the cases.
The cases are being heard in the Central District, which is close to Toyota’s headquarters, in Torrance, Calif. Toyota benefits from this decision by not having to spend extra time and money flying Japanese witnesses to other U.S. locations.
In 2003, former President George W. Bush appointed Judge Selna, a graduate from Stanford University law school.
This decision has not only created a breakthrough for victims seeking justice to this whole mess; it has excited attorney’s who are desperate for top spots in the case.
Of the cases to be heard, nearly 80 seek class action status. A class action lawsuit allows common people the ability to take on large corporations, such as Toyota, in large groups when the same problem has occurred.
According to Richard J. Arsenault, a Louisiana attorney who has filed lawsuits against Toyota, “[Selna] will decide how or whether to pool the cases into class actions and will make rulings on evidence and experts.”
Unlike the drive for daily commuters, let’s hope that these hearings will go smoothly and fairly for all the victims who have suffered so much already.
Hopefully, the location behind the “Orange Curtain” can rub off some of its “vacation-life” attitude and finally relieve all the stress that Toyota has caused.
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