The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is blocking former chief David Strickland from testifying in a California civil lawsuit for Toyota on issues regarding its push-button start systems in some of its cars.
According to the Detroit News, NHTSA officials told lawyers in a letter that Strickland would be barred from testifying in the case as an expert witness.
"The agency has been roundly criticized for its relationship with Toyota in terms of recent enforcement actions, particularly regarding unintended acceleration," NHTSA's lawyer wrote in the letter. "Given this history, Mr. Strickland's testimony as a former NHTSA administrator describing Toyota's actions or conduct in this matter with approval, will likely diminish the agency's ability to pursue a vigorous enforcement review of Toyota moving forward."
Congress has said NHTSA wasn't tough enough on Toyota when it looked into issues that its push-button start system could leave cars running without the keys present.
Toyota said it asked Strickland to testify on general matters in the lawsuit, but the agency barring the former administrator to testify is being praised as a harder line for what people say is a too-familiar relationship between former safety officials and automakers.
"For too long there has been a revolving door at NHTSA which allowed former NHTSA employees to seek lucrative employment with the same auto manufacturers they had at one time been charged with regulating," Christine Spagnoli, a lawyer for the owners suing Toyota, told the Detroit News. "Hopefully, the denial of Mr. Strickland's request to testify on behalf of Toyota is a sign that the new administrator recognizes that these historically cozy relationships between agency employees and the companies they are charged with regulating often results in undermining public trust."
After leaving NHTSA in 2014, Strickland joined a Washington D.C.-based law firm that has also represented Fiat Chrysler. Former NHTSA officials are not allowed to directly lobby for automakers for two years after leaving the safety administration.
The post Former NHTSA Boss Blocked From Testifying in Toyota Case appeared first on The Truth About Cars.
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