My son is one of those who experienced sudden unintended acceleration while driving his Toyota Camry on a city street. Thankfully, the circumstances were such that he was not killed or injured. But he could have been.

I was worried about him continuing to drive the car. Would it happen again – only this time with a more dire outcome? Posts I wrote at the time:

• Tonight my son’s Toyota Camry had unintended acceleration: safe but frazzled
• Should an owner of a Toyota Camry be worried about a repeat episode of SUA?

Read this Fair Warning just-published article: In Echo of a Notorious Safety Scandal, Toyota Has Settled Hundreds of Sudden Acceleration Cases

Without admitting liability, Toyota since 2014 has settled 537 claims blaming sudden acceleration for crashes that killed or seriously injured people, according to a court document Toyota filed last month. Many, but not all, of the lawsuits asserted that electronic defects were the cause of sudden acceleration.

“Toyota has settled most of them, because there is some indication of something going wrong that doesn’t seem to be explained,” Don Slavik, a plaintiff attorney appointed by U.S. District Judge James Selna to assist in the litigation against Toyota, told FairWarning.

How much Toyota has paid in settlements is not publicly known because the company requires plaintiffs to sign a non-disclosure agreement as a condition of each settlement.

Automotive safety advocates see the complaints as a sign that Toyota and federal regulators failed to properly address the root of the problem when they had the opportunity years earlier. . .

Kane, the car safety consultant, says he continues to field calls from drivers who describe their Toyota or Lexus cars suddenly surging in parking lots.  He says that most of these events occur when cars are initially traveling at lower speeds. The cases aren’t serious enough to take to court, but he says that the events make people afraid to drive their own cars and can raise insurance rates if the crashes resulted in property damage.

“It is unbelievable how many sudden unintended acceleration events continue to occur post recall,” Kane told FairWarning. “There are very few high-speed sudden unintended acceleration events, but the lower speeds are a dime a dozen.”

Victims of traffic safety issues clearly need to be represented by an advocate in a position to take significant action to ensure that problems are appropriately addressed. A National Traffic Safety Ombudsman.