SAN DIEGO - Toyota USA is directing all its dealers to inspect their new, used and loaner vehicles in response to a Santee-area car crash that killed a California Highway Patrol officer and three members of his family, apparently after an improperly installed floor mat caused the vehicle's accelerator to become stuck.
In a prepared statement released Monday, the carmaker announced that all Lexus and Toyota dealers would immediately examine their fleets "to assure that any floor mat, whether factory or aftermarket, is correct for the vehicle and properly installed and secured."
Preliminary evidence suggests that the wrong model of all-weather rubber mat was in place on the driver's side of a 2009 Lexus ES 350 being driven by CHP Officer Mark Saylor at the time of the Aug. 28 accident on state Route 125.
