— A Toyota Smart Key System lawsuit settlement has been reached between the automaker and the wife of a Georgia man who died from carbon monoxide after he left his truck running in a garage.
Lee Griffin, 55, owned a 2017 Toyota Tacoma equipped with a keyless, push button ignition which Toyota calls the “Smart Key System.”
Toyota says if a driver parks the vehicle, leaves the engine running, closes the door and exits with the Smart Key fob, the vehicle will beep three times as a warning the engine is still running.
On July 4, 2022, Lee Griffin moved his Toyota Tacoma truck out of his garage to remove his lawnmower. He also put in noise-isolating earbuds so he could listen to music.
Griffin finished mowing the lawn and put the mower back into the garage, then he drove his Tacoma truck back into the garage. He got out of the Tacoma with the engine still running and was likely still listening to music through the earbuds when he exited the truck.
Mr. Griffin woke up sick that night and fainted in the bathroom, while his wife Caroline Griffin had to help him back to the bed. He woke up again and told her he needed help back to the bathroom, and this time Mrs. Griffin fainted after helping her husband.
When she regained consciousness, she found Lee Griffin unconscious in the bathroom and she called 911. The Atlanta Fire Department found extremely high levels of carbon monoxide, and Caroline Griffin had to be carried out of the house. Lee Griffin was pronounced dead at the scene.
An autopsy found he died due to carbon monoxide poisoning from accidentally leaving the Tacoma running in the garage. But his wife Caroline Griffin blamed Toyota and sued the automaker in July 2023.
According to the lawsuit, the truck and Smart Key system were defective and caused the death of Mr. Griffin, while Toyota argued the incident was caused by Mr. Griffin.
According to the plaintiff, Toyota failed to adequately warn her and her husband about "the risk of the engine continuing to run after the Smart Key was removed from the truck in an enclosed space."
The plaintiff said the 2017 Toyota Tacoma had design defects because it didn't shut off on its own after Mr. Griffin left it running in the garage.
The only reason the lawsuit reached the trial stage is because the judge continued to allow the case to proceed for nearly three years. At one point the judge refused to dismiss a claim after Toyota argued Mr. and Mrs. Griffin knew about the dangers of inhaling carbon monoxide fumes, but the judge ruled Toyota's argument was "insufficient."
In addition to arguing the couple already knew about the risk of carbon monoxide fumes, Toyota told the judge there was zero evidence Mr. and Mrs. Griffin ever read the warnings and instructions in the Tacoma owner's manual regarding the operation of the Smart Key System.
Toyota further asserted there was no evidence the Tacoma’s three exterior audible alerts were not good enough to warn that the engine was still running.
On the eve of the Georgia wrongful death trial the plaintiff and Toyota agreed to a confidential settlement. It's likely Toyota wanted no part of a Georgia jury trial based on recent jury verdicts in Georgia involving wrongful death lawsuits against a different automaker.
In one case that involved a crushed Ford truck roof in a violent rollover crash, a Georgia jury originally awarded the plaintiffs $1.7 billion.
In another wrongful death lawsuit against Ford, a Georgia jury originally found Ford liable for $2.5 billion after a truck roof collapsed in a rollover crash.
The Toyota Smart Key lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia: Caroline Patton Griffin v. Toyota Motor Corporation, et al.