B.C. woman blames Toyota for terrifying crash

A B.C. woman is one of at least 156 British Columbians who havejoined a class action lawsuit against Toyota, claiming faulty design caused her car to accelerate out of control with near tragic consequences.

Port Coquitlam resident Shirley MacDonald, 76, wants compensation after her 2004 Toyota Echo suddenly accelerated when she was out for a drive last summer.

"It was Sunday morning, and I was on my way to church," she told CBC News. "When I stepped on the gas, I just went zoom across the street. It was so frightening."

Toyota has recentlyissued recall notices for more than eight million vehicles worldwide, acknowledging there were problems with brakesand sudden acceleration, but the Echo is not among the modelsrecalled. Toyota no longer manufactures the Echo.

Standing near the crash site this week, MacDonald recalled how she hit the brakes and nothing happened. The vehicle continued to accelerate.

As the car sped along, MacDonald managed to steer it away from a busy intersection and hoped she could stop the car by crashing into a nearby chain-link fence. Before that could happen, however, she lost control and crashed into a tree in the front yard of a family home.

"That tree is what stopped me, right, because when I put my foot on the brake nothing happened," she said.

MacDonald's car was totalled. The impact and the exploding airbag slammed her into her seat, deeply bruising her chest and smashing her glasses.

Police blamed driver

She doesn't like to drive the route anymore because it reminds her of the terror she went through that day.

Whatreally hurt was the insistence by police that MacDonald caused the crash herselfby stepping on the accelerator instead of the brake she said.

Police took this position despite pictures taken by her son showing the accelerator pedal flat on the floor after the crash, as if all of the spring had come out of it. But investigators never examined the car after the crash because it was deemed a writeoff, she said.

To add further insult, the B.C. government took away MacDonald's licence, saying her age contributed to thecrash."Some type of cognitive or functional decline contributed to the crash," the government told her in a letter.

"That was nasty," saidMacDonald, who got her licence back last month. "It was devastating to get this letter. It was an insult."

Not being allowed to drive made it harder to care for her housebound husband, who has Parkinson's disease.

Denied herinsurance claim, MacDonald had to pay for damage and other crash-related expenses as well as the cost of a new car.

Insurance company responds

Allegations by MacDonald and others in the class-action lawsuit have notbeen tested in court, and the suit has not been certified. It must be approved by a judge before it can proceed to a trial.

Toyota Canada has not responded to a request by CBC News for an interview.

In the U.S., the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has said 52 people have been killed in crashes linked with acceleration problems in Toyota vehicles.

Other Toyota owners in Canada have also come forward with experiences about uncontrolled acceleration.

The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia is nowreviewing 20 Toyota crashes in the province. The corporation said it sympathizes with MacDonald although it is not clear whether her crash is one of those being investigated.

"We'll do what we can to make it right for our customers if they've been caught up in this recall issue where it's been a contributing factor to their crashes," said corporation spokesman Mark Jan Vrem.

Regina lawyer leadsclass action

MacDonald joined theclass action lawsuit launched by a Saskatchewan lawyer to try to reclaim the costs she had to pay for the crashand the cost of a new car, this time a Nissan.

"I haven't really put a figure on it yet, on what I would feel good with," she said. "But I know it would be nice to have something back, something for what we've gone through."

The lawsuit was launched by Regina class-action specialist Tony Merchant, who has alleged that Toyota's electronic throttles are defective.

Toyota insists the electronic throttle is not a cause of sudden acceleration. The Japanese automaker has maintained that the problem is related to floor mats or to mechanical wear on the accelerator pedal.

MacDonald, whogot her licence back after her doctor said she was medically fit, still can't believe how a simple Sunday drive turned her life upside down.

"All in all, it's been a dreadful experience," she said. "I feel sorry for anybody else who's had to go through it. I really do."