Ford, Chrysler Have Acceleration Issues

Looks like Toyota isn't the only car company facing unintentional acceleration problems. According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration records, over the past three decades, 59 of 110 fatalities pegged to sudden acceleration occurred in cars made by Ford, Chrysler, and other motor companies. In addition, many crashes blamed on "human error" could actually be the result of mechanical problems, Bloomberg reports. Of 15,174 reports of unintended acceleration over the past 10 years, only 141 cases have been investigated since 1980, according to the news service. For years, the agency regularly dismissed complaints of "runaway vehicles" as driver error—and as a result, investigators didn't take the complaints "as seriously" as they should have. "The agency had made a determination that this was primarily a human factor, driver error, and that's outside NHTSA’s purview," said Joan Claybrook, a former NHTSA administrator. "The Toyota case has brought new scrutiny to other factors, and NHTSA has to look at other causes."