<div id="subtitle">Focus shifts to electrical systems</div><div><p> Toyota, already reeling from several massive recalls, has a new problem. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says it has opened a formal investigation of the 2010 Toyota Prius. The goal is to learn whether the 37,000 vehicles suffer momentary loss of braking when traveling on bumpy surfaces.</p><p>NHTSA said it has received 124 consumer complaints about the problem, four of them involving crashes and two of those involving minor injuries. </p><p>A Toyota spokesman said the company would "cooperate fully" with the investigation. </p><p>Toyota's problems began to accelerate Wednesday as Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood advised owners of recalled Toyotas to "stop driving them" until a dealer could inspect them and said U.S. safety investigators are continuing their probe. </p><p>Although LaHood quickly retracted his comments, the Japanese government also told the automaker to investigate reports of brake failure on some Prius models. The Japanese Transportation Ministry cited 14 reports of brake failure in the latest generation of the hybrid since it went on sale in May 2009. </p><p>An examination of complaints to ConsumerAffairs.com also reveals instances of reported brake failure. Gary, of Trumansburg, N.Y., said he had an accident in his 2009 Prius on November 13, 2009 in which his car was totaled. From the start, he said, he suspected brake failure. </p><p>"I was in a situation where I had to stop very quickly and braked as hard as I could," he told ConsumerAffairs.com. “The car slowed to a point then seemed to 'plateau' until my car struck a truck.” </p><p>Gary said he never heard or felt the "ABS sound" or vibration, and had always suspected something was not right with the brakes. Because of the accident, he says he incurred a $2,200 debt to Toyota, from whom he leased the car. </p><p>In early January Virginia of Ottawa, Ontario told ConsumerAffairs.com that her 2005 Prius has always had a brake problem. </p><p>"The brakes momentarily fail if the car hits a fair size pothole or bump while braking, and like other posters it took many occurrences of this to convince me it was the car's problem, not my braking," she wrote. </p><p>Linda of Johnson City, Tenn., wrote last November that her 2007 Prius had exhibited strange behavior, with the brakes sometimes not engaging immediately after applying pressure to the pedal. </p><p>Paul of Sedona Ariz., reported last April that he had been in three accidents, or near accidents in his 2009 Prius due to a combination of mysterious acceleration and loss of brakes. </p><p>"The first incident, a near accident, occurred when the car in front of me stopped," Paul told ConsumerAffairs.com. "I was driving slowly but my car suddenly seemed to accelerate on its own and my brakes failed. How I stopped my car I will never know." </p><p>The second incident was occurred in his garage, he says, when the car sped up and did not repond to the brakes. </p><p>“The third incident occurred in a parking lot,” he said. “While driving slow and looking for a place to park, the brakes did not hold and the result was the car hit a parked car.” </p><p>Toyota has not issued a recall of the Prius to check the brakes, but the New York Times quotes a Toyota spokeswoman as saying a brake defect could not be ruled out. </p><p>U.S. safety investigators are also probing reports of Prius brake problems. Wednesday the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a statement saying it had begun an investigation. </p><p>"NHTSA has received a number of complaints about a potential defect affecting the brake system in Toyota's Prius hybrid and is conducting field work to examine the issue," the agency said. </p><p>Part of that field work may focus on the cars' electrical system. LaHood, who backed off of his comments about not driving Toyotas during Congressional testimony Wednesday, told reporters at an impromptu news conference that the cars' electronics were being scrutinized. </p><p>Could braking and acceleration problems in the Prius have an electric connection? Brakes in hybrids do, in fact, have a large electrical component. In addition to standard brakes, which rely on brake pads pressed against drums, hybrids use their electric motors to help slow the car. </p><p>"We are looking at the electronics. I can't be specific because we are looking at these complaints to see what they are," LaHood said. </p><p>And while LaHood says he never meant to suggest that owners of recalled Toyotas should park them until a dealer can inspect them, lawyers in both the U.S. and UK say that might, in fact, be sound advice. </p><p>A leading British traffic and criminal lawyer urged the owners of almost 181,000 vehicles recalled by Toyota in the UK to park them or face being charged with dangerous driving if they were in an accident. </p><p>The Prius is Toyota's third best-selling model in the U.S., with only the mid-sized Camry and compact Carolla outselling it.

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