Toyota may face 2nd fine: document

2010-04-11 10:29:35 GMT2010-04-11 18:29:35 (Beijing Time) Xinhua English

In this file photo taken on April 1, 2010, a Toyota car is presented during the second media preview day of the New York Iternational Auto Show 2010 in New York, the United States. The U.S. government said on April 5, 2010 that it will seek as much as 16.375 million dollars of civil penalty against Toyota over the massive recalls. (Xinhua/Shen Hong)

BEIJING, April 11 (Xinhuanet) --There is a chance that the U.S. National Highway Transport Safety Administration (NHTSA) may impose a second fine on Toyota for not revealing acceleration problems in time.

The U.S. federal regulators has imposed a civil fine of 16.4 million U.S. dollars against Toyota Motor Corp. for failing to notify the auto safety agency of the dangerous "sticky pedal" defect for at least four months.

The penalty is the maximum the NHTSA can levy under federal law, and could be the largest NHTSA has ever imposed against an auto manufacturer.

In a letter to Toyota obtained Saturday by AFP, the NHTSA warned Toyota it was considering a second penalty.

Approximately 2.3 million vehicles in the U.S. were recalled in January for the sticky pedal defect. Toyota separately has recalled 5.4 million vehicles over pedal entrapment issues, though some vehicles are impacted by both.

Toyota is facing at least 97 lawsuits seeking damages for injury or death linked to sudden acceleration and 138 class action lawsuits from angry customers suing to recoup losses in the resale value of Toyota vehicles following the recalls.

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