Toyota fights amending crash death suit

MINNEAPOLIS, April 20 (UPI) -- It is too late for victims of a 2006 Camry accident in Minnesota to expand their lawsuit, Toyota contends.

Driver Koua Fong Lee and survivors of the three people killed want to amend their suit by adding claims that Toyota concealed brake defects in Lee's 1996 Camry and its alleged negligence caused emotional distress, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported Wednesday.

Toyota lawyer John Sear told a federal Judge Ann Montgomery in Minneapolis Tuesday: "The nature of the tragedy put everyone on notice of the claims they had."

Lee's lawyer, Robert Hilliard, could not explain why the plaintiffs missed a January deadline to amend the complaint but said the judge could still let them do so and Toyota has plenty of time to respond since the trial is not scheduled until November 2012.

Lee's car crashed into another on a St. Paul freeway exit ramp at 90 mph, killing three occupants. He was convicted of vehicular homicide but was freed after reports of Toyota braking defects emerged.

The plaintiffs aim to prove a defect in brake cable caused the acceleration. Hilliard says the automaker knew about the problem as far back as 1996.