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The US government is considering slapping a fine on Toyota stemming from the Japanese firm's mass recalls of cars and trucks over acceleration problems, a US official said Tuesday.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration "is considering a civil penalty against Toyota," an official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The possibility of a fine from the US agency, whose mission is to prevent death and disability on the nation's roads, was raised as the Japanese carmaker faced mounting criticism in the United States over a series of recalls.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Tuesday that Toyota had acted only after pressure from the US government.
"Since questions were first raised about possible safety defects, we have been pushing Toyota to take measures to protect consumers,"
"While Toyota is taking responsible action now, it unfortunately took an enormous effort to get to this point," he said in a statement.
Department of Transportation officials flew to Japan in December "to remind Toyota management about its legal obligations and followed up with a meeting at DOT headquarters in January to insist that they address the accelerator pedal issue," LaHood said.
"We're not finished with Toyota and are continuing to review possible defects and monitor the implementation of the recalls."
In a consumer advisory issued Monday, the NHTSA said it wanted to address "continued reports of consumer concern and confusion about two separate safety recalls Toyota announced over the past week involving accelerator pedals. Each recall has a different root cause -- pedal entrapment and sticky pedal."
Last October, Toyota recalled 3.8 million vehicles for accelerator pedal entrapment that had killed five people in two incidents, the NHTSA said.
Toyota announced in January the recall of 2.3 million on vehicles for a problem internal to the accelerator pedal that causes it to be harder to depress, slower to return to the closed position or get stuck in some partially depressed position, it said.
It noted that some of the vehicles included in that recall were also included in the pedal entrapment recall.
Toyota said Monday it would start fixing faulty accelerator pedals this week.
The automaker pulled up to 1.8 million vehicles in Europe on Friday, the latest in a series of recalls that has affected almost eight million Toyota cars worldwide -- roughly equivalent to its entire 2009 global sales.
Toyota said Tuesday that it would recall about 180,000 vehicles in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America that were imported from the United States with sticking accelerator pedals.
Toyota's US unit, Toyota Motor Sales USA, says the Japanese company had "developed and rigorously tested" a fix for accelerator pedals in faulty models and had also come up with "an effective solution" for vehicles currently in production.
Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor USA, said in a conference call Monday with reporters that Toyota had not been forced into the recall.
"If we look at the process that took place, back in late October we had technical reports of three vehicles that had this sticking in the pedal," he said.
"As soon as we realized... that this issue was taking place.. obviously we were having communication with NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board)."
Lentz said: "The voluntary decision (to recall) was Toyota's."
Once that decision was made due to a safety issue, the company had "a legal and an ethical" obligation "to stop selling these vehicles."
Lentz also said the decision to halt production was "entirely ours."
Production of the eight models affected will resume on February 8 at factories in the United States and Canada after a brief suspension, the company said.
