Reported by Jeremy Finley
NASHVILLE, Tenn.A middle Tennessee representative has sent a scathing letter to the government agency about the handling of the Toyota crisis.
It all stems from a Channel 4 I-Team investigation into Toyota Tacoma pickup trucks. Another local member of Congress is also raising concerns about why a full-blown congressional hearing wasn't held.
When the I-Team first exposed sudden acceleration cases in 2007 in the Toyota Tacoma pickup truck, Rep. Bart Gordon wrote the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, about the "potentially serious safety issue."
NHTSA responded that it tested one Tacoma and could not find a defect.
Gordon said he doesn't think a swift and thorough investigation occurred, which is what he asked for. He has now written NHTSA again.
"It now appears that a serious examination of accelerator problems in the Tacoma two years ago may have allowed the problem to be addressed earlier, saving lives and reducing the number of vehicles recalled," Gordon wrote. "I am disappointed that NHTSA underestimated the severity of the program by conducting such a cursory investigation."
The I-Team asked NHTSA for comment, and a representative said a response would only be given to the congressman.
Also in 2007, Rep. Marsha Blackburn saw the I-Team's investigation and suggested a congressional hearing.
"Maybe we should work with Toyota, ask them to come to the hearing," Blackburn said in 2007.
But there was no congressional hearing, even after she wrote the Committee on Energy and Commerce that oversees public safety, asking it to investigate the matter.
Blackburn said she is frustrated that Congress should have done more.
"I am frustrated with NHTSA, also," she said.
Blackburn said the head of that committee has since retired, and it's unclear why the hearing never happened.
Before the recalls began in last 2009, NHTSA did six different investigations of Toyota vehicles, including the Tacoma, but found no defects.
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