丰田了结“无故加速”官司

Toyota Motor on Wednesday sought to put more than three years of embarrassing safety issues in the US behind it when it agreed a settlement for more than $1bn for consumers who lost money through the problems.

丰田汽车(Toyota Motor)周三同意向因其汽车安全问题而遭受损失的美国消费者支付逾10亿美元，以告别困扰它三年多的一场令人尴尬的安全官司。

The company, which is close to regaining the title of the world’s biggest carmaker by volumes from General Motors, said it would take a $1.1bn pre-tax charge to cover the costs of settling claims related to reports that its cars were prone to sudden, unintended acceleration.

即将从通用汽车(General Motors)手里重新夺回全球产量第一桂冠的丰田表示，将在税前项目中拨出11亿美元作为和解费用，以了结一项来自消费者的指控：即丰田汽车容易突然无故加速。

The charge would cover payments to owners whose cars fell in value as well as covering the estimated costs of fitting new safety equipment to many affected vehicles, extending warranty periods and reaching a settlement that the district attorney of Orange County, California brought over safety issues and an action brought by a series of states’ attorneys-general.

这些费用将包括：补偿丰田车主汽车价值下降的损失，更换受影响车型的安全设备，以及延长车辆保质期。这笔费用还将用于就加州奥兰治郡检察长提出的安全问题和多州检察长提起的诉讼达成和解。

Hagens Berman, the law firm that represented Toyota owners in a class-action lawsuit over the decline in vehicles’ values and other issues, said the total value of that settlement alone was likely to be between $1.2bn and $1.4bn.

代表丰田车主的律师事务所Hagens Berman表示，单单这项和解的总价值可能在12亿美元至14亿美元之间。丰田车主此前就汽车价值下降等问题，向丰田提起集体诉讼。

The settlement follows a series of incidents starting in 2009 where Toyota vehicles, including its popular Prius hybrid, appeared to have accelerated against drivers’ wishes. Toyota insisted throughout that there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the electronic throttle control systems that had been implicated in many of the incidents, which in some cases resulted in vehicles’ speeding down highways with drivers unable to stop. It reiterated that stance in its press release announcing the settlement.

在从2009年起发生的一系列事故中，丰田汽车（包括其广受欢迎的普锐斯混合动力车）似乎都出现了无故加速的问题。丰田一直坚称，它的电子节气阀控制系统基本上没有问题，尽管多起事故似乎都与这一系统有关。在一些事故中，汽车在高速路上飞奔而无法停下来。丰田在宣布达成和解的资讯稿中重申了这一立常

Hagens Berman said the settlement included $250m in payments to compensate former owners who sold their vehicles between September 2009 and December 2010. Another $250m would compensate current Toyota owners ineligible for the brake-override system that the carmaker has devised to prevent future incidents.

Hagens Berman表示，和解协议包括向2009年9月至2010年12月期间卖掉丰田汽车的前车主补偿2.5亿美元，还有2.5亿美元将用于补偿现在保有、但不能加装刹车优先系统的丰田汽车的车主。丰田公司设计了一套刹车优先系统以防止今后再发生类似事故。