In its second major recall within a span of months, Toyota announced on Thursday that it planned to recall 2.3 million vehicles in the United States due to a defect in the product, namely, faulty accelerator pedals. This recall comes a few months after Toyota recalled 4.2 million vehicles, due to gas pedals sticking under floor mats. The sticky gas pedals problem allegedly led to a fatal accident last year. There had also allegedly been several complaints made to a San Diego area car dealership regarding the floor-mats problem.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is a federal body charged with governing vehicle safety standards and when a motor-vehicle product has a safety issue or fails to meet safety guidelines, that product must be recalled.

Product recalls of such proportion are also a blanket solution for large companies to minimize the risk of products liability law suits for personal injury.  In the case of auto manufacturers such as Toyota, the likely cause of any such suit would stem from a car accident and in the case of fatal accidents, could include potential wrongful death actions.