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Toyota criminal settlement heartbreaking for White Rock man

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WHITE ROCK (NEWS1130) – After a US criminal investigation, Toyota has agreed to pay a 1.2 billion dollar penalty to avoid criminal prosecution for hiding information in a recall case. But families who lost loved ones to related defects call it a slap in the face.

Under the agreement, the Japanese automaker admits to misleading consumers with deceptive statements over the safety issues on its Toyota and Lexus vehicles.

Ron Eves says allowing Toyota to dodge charges if they pay the entire penalty doesn’t hold the company accountable for not immediately recalling all defective cars that accelerated unexpectedly.

“I don’t think the families have been fairly dealt with as far as transparency by Toyota. Kind of a sad day for all families that have had someone seriously injured or killed in a Toyota,” says Eves, adding the penalty won’t cause much hardship for the large corporation that brings in a profit of billions of dollars every year.

Eves, who lives in White Rock, also says he’s disappointed Canada hasn’t looked at similar criminal charges against the automaker–despite a promise from John Baird years ago, when he was still Transportation Minister, to do so. “I’m hoping they will,” says Eves, adding “but nothing happens, it just seems to wither on the vine.”

Eves says his family decided not to proceed with a civil court case years ago. Toyota reached a settlement in a Canada-wide class action lawsuit over economic loss by consumers March 17th.

The penalty imposed following the US criminal investigation is the largest ever handed down to an auto company. But Eves says that doesn’t make things right.

“It’s another sore spot, another wound has been opened up. There’s a lot of other families out there that have had the same heartache of either seriously injured family members of fatalities in these defective Toyotas.”

Eves’ son Christopher was killed in 2007 when his Toyota Tundra slammed into a tree on a rural Washington Road.

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