The nation’s largest auto insurer alerted federal safety regulators on numerous occasions starting in 2007 about a rise in reports of unexpected acceleration in Toyotas, according to the insurer, State Farm.
The warnings, from a firm that maintains a vast store of crash data based on its customer base of more than 40 million, followed a stream of consumer complaints about the alleged defect. Regulators received the warnings more than a year before they pressed the automaker to issue recalls affecting millions of cars and trucks.
Full story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/08/AR2010020803830.html