Older Drivers May Be to Blame, Not Toyota

The knock against Toyota goes something like this: Greedy executives ignored evidence of serious acceleration problems, putting profit ahead of their customers' lives. "Maybe so, but I doubt it," writes Megan McArdle. Building on the work of Ted Frank at the Washington Examiner, she took a closer look at the 56 reported accidents: Most of the drivers were old, and most of the accidents occurred while parking, leaving a parking spot, or in stop-and-go traffic—when it's not that hard to hit the wrong pedal.

"When you look at these incidents all together, it's pretty clear why Toyota didn't investigate this 'overwhelming evidence' of a problem," writes McArdle at the Atlantic. "They look a lot like typical cases of driver error. I don't know that all of them are. But I do know that however advanced Toyota's electronics are, they're not yet clever enough to be able to pick on senior citizens." (More Toyota stories.)