Japan’s biggest auto maker, Toyota Motor Corp, said on Tuesday that the US government has launched an investigation into three of its vehicle models, including the Camry—its best-selling model in the United States—over an alleged defect that causes sudden acceleration.On Monday, the US highway safety authority announced that it had received reports of 30 crashes that injured at least five people, when some Toyota Camry, Camry Solara and Lexus ES300 vehicles suddenly and unexpectedly surged forward. “One of the noted injuries was serious: it occurred when a pedestrian was struck by a vehicle which allegedly surged forward unexpectedly,” the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said in a statement released on the Internet.An estimated 1,010,000 vehicles from the the 2002 and 2003 model years could be affected, according to the NHTSA.A spokeswoman for Toyota confirmed the NHTSA’s investigationinto the three models, but she said she could not give further details of the investigation.Shares in Toyota earlier ended Tokyo trade up 0.51 per cent at3,950 yen, against a 0.25 per cent rise in the benchmark Nikkei average. — (Reuters)
