(Thumbnail image: Toyota)

As the circumstances around the Toyota recall unravel, there are more questions about the source of the acceleration problem. Toyota began shipping parts to fix the issue, but it could be too little too late.

We are looking at sources from Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, the Seattle Times and others.

On FOX News, liability lawyer Fred Ticci predicted Toyota will have a tough time standing up to the onslaught of lawsuits it will soon face.

"At the end of the day the defenses available to Toyota are really pretty limited. And quite frankly we always like to say their defenses are a blindfold and a cigarette. So these are serious cases, they're serious injuries and I think you are going to see the justice system step in and deal with these problems and hopefully encourage people like Toyota and organizations like Toyota to fix these problems before it gets to this point."

However, the number of genuine lawsuits may not be so large. On The Wall Street Journal's The Hub, Evan Newmark is skeptical of the claims some Toyota owners will be making.

"All of a sudden everyone is discovering, you know every grandma who has a Toyota Camry is suddenly discovering when she is starting to park the thing, it suddenly accelerates."

Reuters continues that thought saying, legally, plaintiffs will have the burden of proof.

"Legal experts said drivers might have more difficulty recovering if they cannot show their cars actually experienced sudden acceleration. Fear that it could happen may not be enough."

At least 15 lawsuits seeking class action status have been filed against Toyota on the acceleration issue, and seven of them claim an electronic throttle system called ETCS-i is at fault instead of the pedals. The Seattle Times sees opinions mounting against the automaker.
 
"Independent safety experts have been skeptical of Toyota's explanations, saying floor mats and sticky gas pedals can't fully explain the large number of complaints that have been mounting."

Automobile experts aren't the only people questioning the source of Toyota's problem ABC News reports.

"The chairman of the house congress committee Henry Waxmen raised his own issues about Toyotas today, saying Toyota executives in private told his staff  they don’t really know the cause of the high speed runaway cars, that it could be electronic while in public the president of the company said its only floor mats or gas pedals congress is demanding Toyota clarify what they know and come clean by hearings they have later on this month.”

A McGill professor sat down with Canada's CTV to discuss the current state of Toyota and defend Toyota's response to their recent problems.

"In a nutshell yeah I think they have reacted fairly well. They’re stopping production of existing models, hasn’t been done before. So that is another layer of consumer protection that they put in place which is significant.”

Do you think Toyota knows what the problem is? Is the company responding appropriately to the situation?

Writers: Amanda Klohmann and Tyler Goetz 

Producer: Nathan Giannini