Coming Soon: The Toyota Defense

My family and I had just moved to the San Francisco Bay Area when City Supervisor Dan White murdered fellow supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978. The late White's defense? He had eaten too many Twinkies and was, therefore, mentally impaired from all the sugar he had ingested. The Twinkie Defense.

Yesterday, a woman in an Atlanta suburb drove her car into the foyer and living room of her neighbors' home. It came as no shock to me that the woman claims that she was practically standing on the brakes, but the car revved up and smashed into the house. After all, it was a 2009 Toyota Corolla, one of the models the beleaguered Japanese car maker has recalled.
In all likelihood, the woman is telling the truth. She was merely pulling out of her own driveway when the accident occurred. (Sound familiar?) But I knew then that a new legal tactic had been born: The Toyota Defense.

Now, every time a Toyota is involved in an accident, the defense attorneys will attempt to "prove" that the driver was not at fault because the accelerator overrode the brake system. Blood alcohol content? Circumstantial. Distracted by texting or cell phone conversation? Circumstantial.

Toyota Motor Corporation is in a helluva mess, that's for sure. And the illusion of value that has surrounded its cars for decades is evaporating before our eyes. In fact, when I was driving my Toyota-made Lexus yesterday, I was conscious of being concerned that the thing might suddenly start to surge out of control. When I bought that car, it was with the confidence that I would likely never have to buy another car in the future, because of its reliability and overall quality.

I just had a vision of a miles-high pile of compacted Toyotas and Lexuses (Lexi?) sitting next to all the discarded Twinkies from the 1970s in the city dumps. The Twinkies are still there, of course, because of all the preservatives!