Readers of this Alabama products liability blog probably recall the problems Toyota owners experienced with sudden acceleration in 2009 and 2010. The potentially dangerous defect led Toyota Motor Co. to issue a massive recall of eight million vehicles. The company blamed the issue, which involved the vehicles speeding up when the accelerator was not being used, on the pedal becoming stuck on the floor mat. A report issued last year by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration agreed with that conclusion.

But some safety advocates and Toyota owners think that some of the sudden acceleration incidents could have been due to defects in the vehicles' electronic system. Though the NHTSA said its investigation found no evidence of that, one group is accusing the agency of ignoring some evidence, including that brought to the agency's attention by a government official.

The official works as a director at the Office of Electric Reliability, a branch of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. For years, he drove a Toyota Prius, logging about 280,000 miles on it. On May 5, 2011, while driving home from work, the car repeatedly surged forward out of the man's control. He tested the accelerator during one surge and found it was not stuck on the mat; in fact, it was "fully up," he said in a sworn statement.

He contacted the NHTSA and two investigators came to his home. They videotaped the car as it went through the surges and took computer readings of the car's software. But the only result of the visit was a letter months later informing the man that the problem was due to his Prius' age and high mileage.

Safety Research and Strategies, an auto safety firm, requested the documents the NHTSA gathered from that visit, but only received a portion and none of the video evidence. The group has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the agency to get the rest.

Source: The New York Times, "Lawsuit Seeks Records From Toyota Investigation," Bill Vlasic, Jan. 24, 2012