Toyota's recent court filing details the automaker's strategy in defending itself against a wave of lawsuits claiming a sudden acceleration defect in its vehicles. In keeping with the traditional tactics used by automakers accused of manufacturing defects in vehicles, Toyota will allege that the error lies not in the vehicle's alleged defects, but in the drivers themselves.

Wrongful death experts note that Toyota will have to go up against nearly 200 lawsuits, including some from Kentucky, alleging that sudden acceleration defects led to accidents and deaths among drivers and passengers. The accidents occurred in 2009 and 2010. Because of the number of lawsuits filed, they have been consolidated and are set to begin in a U.S. district court in California in February 2013.

The first such incident of alleged sudden acceleration concerns a man and woman who died after his vehicle crashed into a stone wall while the vehicle exited an interstate highway in Utah. Two family members who survived the crash said the man tried to push the car's brakes and stop the acceleration. Toyota recently revealed to the court, though, that the black box recorder installed in the vehicle indicates that the driver never actually pushed on the car's breaks.

The information has altered the legal approach of Toyota, which had initially taken responsibility for mechanical problems in the vehicles leading to the accelerations. Toyota issued recalls of many vehicles in 2009 and 2010.

Toyota will also argue that there are shutdown systems installed in some of the vehicles that would have ended the sudden acceleration processes if the brakes had been pressed.

Further details regarding the legal strategies of both sides may be yet to come.

Source: Huffington Post, "Toyota sudden acceleration lawsuit defense revealed: Blame the driver" Sharon Silke Carty, Jan. 13, 2012