US court orders Toyota to pay $11 mn for fatal accident

Washington, Feb 4 (IANS/EFE) A jury in the US city of Minneapolis has found Toyota partially responsible for a 2006 accident which left three people dead, and ordered the Japanese carmaker to pay $11 million in damages, according to media reports.

The jury said Tuesday that the 1996 Toyota Camry had a design defect which was partly to blame for the crash in which three people died, including two young children.

But the jury also found Koua Fong Lee, the car's driver, 40 percent responsible for the collision with another vehicle in which Javis Trice-Adams, his son Javis Adams and his nephew Devyn Bolton died.

The court ordered Toyota to pay $2 million to Lee and the remaining sum to the victims' families.

Lee argued that the accident was caused by a design flaw in the car that caused it to accelerate suddenly.

After the crash, Lee was convicted of responsibility for the accident and sent to prison.

However, after serving two-and-a-half-years in prison, the prosecution decided to award him a retrial when it discovered numerous reports of sudden acceleration problems in Toyota cars.

The Japanese company has denied that Lee's car was not subjected to the recalls of many of its vehicles over acceleration issues.

--IANS/EFE

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