Dear Editor,

On Monday last the California police had to come to the rescue of a driver who lost control of his vehicle – a Toyota Prius – while trying to overtake another vehicle on a California freeway. The driver, 61-year-old James Sikes said that as he accelerated to overtake a vehicle his car kept accelerating reaching speeds of 150 kilometres per hour.  All his efforts to brake and bring the vehicle to halt were unsuccessful. The brakes were rendered useless! His quick thinking, whereby he called 911, the emergency number in the United States that is guaranteed to be answered by helpful operators, probably saved his life.

An on-duty police driver in his car equipped with a loud speaker coached Sikes on how to slow down using the brakes and emergency brake before finally switching off the ignition. At 50 kilometres per hour he was able to stop his vehicle along with brave assistance from the on-duty cop.

I believe the world has been made aware of the severe problems that currently affect the Toyota brand. Toyota is presently in the process of recalling 8.5 million vehicles worldwide to deal with problems including sticking accelerator pedals, slipping floor mats and malfunctioning brakes.

The unfolding disasters affecting the Toyota brand must surely test the theories of public relations and contemporary strategic marketing as the company grapples with the many incidents that highlight what one can arguably say are the result of sloppy engineering and an insensitivity to quality, health and safety.

I sincerely hope that Guyana has put some measure(s) in place for dealing with the new Toyota vehicles that are imported. The Bureau of Standards must ensure that there are measures to treat with importers of Toyota vehicles. Guyana is a country that runs on Toyota vehicles. Therefore it will be in the interest of the safety of the citizenry that those responsible for the importation of vehicles ensure that Guyana doesn’t fall prey to importing some of Toyota’s defective vehicles, thus putting people’s lives at risk.

Yours faithfully,
Richard Francois