Did Toyota Sway Traffic Safety Regulators?

The Japanese automaker fended off four U.S. auto defect probes dating back to 2004 with the help of two ex-regulators on its payroll

Toyoda in Tokyo: Toyota's president has so far declined to testify before Congress Yuriko Nakao/Reuters

By Jeff Green and Margaret Cronin Fisk

The revolving door between Wall Street, the Treasury Dept., and the Fed is cited as a big reason for the lax oversight of the banks that brought us the credit crisis. Did the same problem prevent Toyota Motor (TM) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from understanding the true scope of acceleration problems in the automaker's cars and trucks dating back to 2004?

A Bloomberg News review of court and government records shows at least four U.S. investigations into unintended acceleration in engine speeds of Toyota cars and trucks were ended with the help of two former regulators hired by the automaker, long before Toyota's expensive worldwide recall became news in late January. Christopher Tinto, vice-president for regulatory affairs in Toyota's Washington office, and Christopher Santucci, who works for Tinto, joined Toyota directly from NHTSA—Tinto in 1994 and Santucci in 2003—and both represented the world's biggest automaker on controversial safety cases.

While all automakers have employees who handle issues with NHTSA, Toyota may be alone among the major companies in employing former agency staffers to do so. Spokesmen for General Motors (GM), Ford Motor (F), Chrysler, and Honda Motor (HMC) all say their companies have no ex-NHTSA people who deal with the agency on defects. "Toyota bamboozled NHTSA or NHTSA was bamboozled by itself," says Joan Claybrook, an auto safety advocate and former NHTSA administrator in the Carter Administration. "I think there is going to be a lot of heat on NHTSA over this."

On Feb. 16, NHTSA Administrator David L. Strickland ordered Toyota to release documents that show when it became aware of safety issues related to malfunctioning accelerators and floor mats pinning down gas pedals. Three congressional committees have scheduled hearings on the carmaker's recall, though Toyota President Akio Toyoda has so far declined to testify. Problems with Toyota and Lexus models have been tied to as many as 34 deaths from 2004 to 2009, and the recall has since widened, for a total of more than 8 million cars, to include possible brake problems with the Prius hybrid.

U.S. regulators say Toyota hasn't gotten off easily. In an e-mailed response to questions about possible influence of former NHTSA employees on the agency's Toyota decisions, Transportation Dept. spokeswoman Olivia Alair said NHTSA "currently has three open investigations involving Toyota and is monitoring two major safety recalls involving Toyota vehicles. NHTSA's record reflects that safety is its singular priority."

Toyota says there was nothing untoward about the roles played by Tinto and Santucci, neither of whom was available for comment. "Anything Mr. Tinto and Mr. Santucci did was in the interest of full disclosure, transparency and openness with regulators and safety experts," Toyota spokeswoman Martha Voss said in an e-mailed statement. "Their actions have been consistent with our efforts to maintain the highest professional and ethical standards in all of our legal and regulatory practices. Their paramount concern was for the safety of every single owner of one of our vehicles."

The four probes the Toyota aides helped end involved complaints that the unintended acceleration was caused by flaws in the vehicles' electronic throttle systems. Toyota has denied that the system is a problem. Transportation Dept. Secretary Ray LaHood said on Feb. 3 that NHTSA is reviewing the electronics.

NHTSA opened eight investigations of unintended acceleration of Toyota vehicles from 2003 to 2010, according to Safety Research & Strategies, a Rehoboth (Mass.) group that gathers data from NHTSA and other sources for plaintiff's attorneys and consumers. Three of the probes resulted in recalls for floor mats.

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