Toyota was famously slow to respond to the glut of claims of sudden acceleration problems afflicting some of its vehicles — at least until a now-notorious recording of an emergency 911 call made from one of the passengers stuck in 45-year-old California Highway Patrolman Mark Saylor's speeding Lexus on Aug. 28, 2009.
"We're doing 120 (mph [193 kph]). We're in trouble ... we can't ... there's no brakes," said the caller, moments before the car crashed at a San Diego intersection and burst into flames, killing everyone inside — Saylor, his wife, daughter and brother-in-law.
The distress call, repeatedly aired on network TV and posted on YouTube, triggered a very public media trial of the Japanese carmaker.