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Toyota responded on Monday to police suspicions that an accelerator or floor mat problem caused a crash that killed two people in Wendover earlier this month.
"Toyota sympathizes with the friends and family of Paul Vanalfen," Toyota Motor Corp. spokesman Paul Nolasco in Tokyo told The Associated Press. He said that while the company was supporting the Utah Highway Patrol in its investigation, it was premature to draw any conclusions because the investigation was ongoing.
Driver Paul Vanalfen, 66, and a passenger, 38-year-old Charlene Lloyd, died after their Camry slammed into a rock wall on Nov. 5.
Passengers told police the Washington Terrace man tried to stop his 2008 Camry as he exited from Interstate 80, but could not. The car went through a stop sign and intersection before it crashed.
The brakes were in working order and the car's tires left skid marks at the scene, indicating Vanalfen was using them, said UHP Sgt. Nathan Croft.
Two other passengers, Vanalfen's 61-year-old wife and 34-year-old son, have been treated and released from University Hospital.
Vanalfen's Camry was subject to at least two recent recalls, Croft said, one mandatory and one voluntary. The mandatory recall and repair, for a sticking accelerator, had been completed.
Nolasco said he did not have details on whether the Camry underwent any fixes under its recall.
The family is waiting for the investigation to be completed, but litigation is possible, Vanalfen's wife, Shirlene, told The Salt Lake Tribune.
The crash raised questions about Toyota Motor Corp.'s system for repairing flaws in its vehicles. Safety advocates note that the government has received dozens of customer complaints about problems continuing even after a repair.
"To think that Toyota has solved the problem with these recalls, I think the complaints show something different," said Sean Kane, founder of Safety Research & Strategies Inc., a Massachusetts-based firm that has studied Toyota's recalls.
In the past year, Toyota Motor Corp. has recalled millions of vehicles because of floor mats that can snag gas pedals or accelerators that can sometimes stick. Hundreds of lawsuits were filed against Toyota after the automaker began issuing the worldwide recalls.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it has received about 3,000 reports of sudden acceleration from Toyota drivers in the past decade, including 93 deaths. The government, however, has confirmed only four deaths from one crash.
A Transportation Department spokeswoman said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was reviewing the facts surrounding the Utah crash but declined to comment further.