形成外科医のアメリカ留学計画

Toyota settles over California crash deaths

Toyota Motor has reached a settlement over an accident last year in California, which triggered its largest recall ever in the United States.

In August 2009, 4 people died when a Lexus they were in hit an embankment on a highway near San Diego.

Toyota confirmed on Saturday that it settled out-of-court with the families of the victims who had claimed liability.

The amount of the settlement has not been made public but the families are said to have demanded 10 million dollars.

The crash created national headlines in the United States as one of the victims had made an emergency call with a mobile phone asking for help.
Following the accident, concern over safety of Toyota cars increased dramatically. Consequently, Toyota recalled about 6 million vehicles in the US, including Camry and Prius models as well as the Lexus.

More than 300 lawsuits have been filed in the United States against Toyota, claiming that failure of its cars caused accidents.

*settle　落ち着く、和解する
*embankment　盛土
*liability　負債、マイナスになるもの
*make(create) national headlines 全国に大きく報道される
*lawsuit　訴訟