One was a busy financial adviser. Another was an insurance agent. A third had recently finished law school and embarked on a legal career.Then came the tornado.WASHINGTON – Congress and the Obama administration have needlessly panicked American car owners over Toyota malfunctions, Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd, said Wednesday.
A certain amount of risk is involved in everything, from taking a bath to riding a skateboard, Souder said in an interview before attending a hearing on the Toyota recalls.
“Is 14 deaths outside or inside the acceptable risk?” he asked, referring to the number of fatalities that have been attributed to the sudden acceleration of some Toyota models.
Toyota has recalled 6 million cars sold in the U.S. for complaints that the accelerator pedals can stick. The pedals are being replaced, but in a congressional hearing Tuesday, a Toyota official said he wasn’t certain that replacing the pedals would fix the problem.
Sudden acceleration has been linked to 34 deaths, according to reports filed with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. Souder referred to 14, which was the figure that led to the recalls and widespread news coverage.
“Fourteen deaths, even if they’re proven, is terrible,” he said. “But it’s within the margin. We have that many deaths on almost everything, from tricycles to bicycles to horseback riding to ice skating.”
Zero injuries and deaths is a goal, he said, “but you can’t reach zero as hard as you try. It’s impossible. We could make the cost of the car $100,000, and we’re not going to eliminate it all.”
He repeated the point at the hearing and asked Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood whether he agrees that it’s impossible to make a 100 percent safe car.
LaHood insisted that “100 percent is our goal.”
The hearing was one of three that congressional committees called this week to discuss defects in Toyota vehicles and the government’s response to them.
Souder said it’s proper for the Oversight and Government Reform Committee he sits on to ask questions to make sure the Transportation Department is doing all it should in the case.
But, he said, “it seems like a show trial.”
That was a complaint Gov. Mitch Daniels aired this week in visits with journalists in Washington.
Daniels said the congressional reaction to Toyota “feels like a witch hunt” that is complicated because the government has part-ownership of Toyota’s competitors, Chrysler and GM.
A Toyota plant in southern Indiana employs 4,300 people; parts suppliers around the state employ thousands of others.
Although some parts suppliers in northeast Indiana sell to Toyota, most of their business is to the Big Three U.S. automakers. A GM truck plant in Allen County is a major employer.
“I don’t represent a Toyota district,” Souder said at the hearing. “I represent a GM district. … But this whole ruckus about Toyota has bothered me.”
Souder said the irony for him is that if customers lose confidence in Toyota, it may increase sales for GM, Chrysler and Ford.
But, he said, the tone of the congressional hearings “smells funny to me.”
He accused lawmakers – both Republicans and Democrats – of “grandstanding” and said that overheated focus on the issue could lead to more regulation.
“There is no proof that additional regulation will lead to additional safety,” Souder said. “You put more regulation on and more demands on, you increase the cost of products and you push us deeper into economic recession. The No. 1 challenge to companies is over-regulation.”
