The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced on August 24, 2015 that it would not open a probe into millions of Toyota vehicles regarding possible unintended acceleration. The agency announced that it denied a petition to investigate “low-speed surging” (also known as unintended acceleration) as they believed the accidents involved were consistent with driver error. The agency relied upon Event Data Recorder data (as described in this post by Levinson Axelrod attorney, Michael Fusco, Esq.) to determine that three crashes which led to serious accidents were consistent with pedal misapplications by the drivers. In 2009, Toyota paid a $1.2 billion fine to the Department of Justice following the tragic death of a California Highway Patrolman and his family in a Lexus, after the vehicle allegedly malfunctioned and went off the road at around 120-mph. This incident, and others, have led to the recall of millions of Toyota vehicles, and countless civil lawsuits.