RUTHFULLY YOURS

A record $48.8 million in fines, nearly eight million vehicle recalls, hundreds of lawsuits and one humiliating set of Congressional grillings later, we finally learned Tuesday that Toyota cars can’t magically accelerate on their own. So what happened? “Pedal misapplications.”

Now there’s a euphemism for the bureaucratic ages. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood couldn’t bring himself to say “driver error” and he grew testy with a reporter who dared to put it so bluntly. But that’s what the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study, conducted over 10 months with the help of NASA engineers, concluded. Or to put it in plain English: Drivers, in moments of panic, sometimes mistake the accelerator for the brake.

That’s an uncomfortable finding for politicians, plaintiffs attorneys and “safety advocates” who have tried for years to squeeze money out of big auto makers, including Audi, Ford, General Motors and others. That’s why Clarence Ditlow, head of the Center for Auto Safety, dismissed Tuesday’s report.

Tuesday’s finding isn’t all that surprising. Courts and federal regulators have consistently found that electrical errors aren’t to blame for “sudden unintended acceleration.” Brakes can almost always overcome an engine. But the more technology evolves, the more lawyers can create new sources of worry.

The Toyota scare was unusual in that the causes of the horrific 2009 accident that kicked off the consumer-safety scare were well-known and mechanical in nature. A Lexus dealer installed the wrong floor mat in a loaner car and the pedal got stuck. Toyota was already recalling floor mats at the time. The U.S. government demanded the company recall defective gas pedals too. Toyota made it so.

It was only the tide of complaints to Washington, federal hearings and a media frenzy that forced regulators to embark on the $1.5 million safety study. Mr. LaHood played to those galleries at the time rather than contributing to public understanding, so we can understand why he prefers euphemisms now.