Crash victim's father: 'It is about money over lives'

Now Toyota is at the center of a firestorm of questions about vehicle safety, and Eves' parents have a new question -- could there be a deadly connection?

More than 200 crashes - all Toyota vehicles - are raising questions about out-of-control accelerators. Could they be connected to the Eves' loss?

"I'll always want to know happened," said Lori Eves, Chris Eves' mother. "You know, that's, that was my baby."

On Oct. 17, 2007 Chris Eves was driving on a straight stretch of flat, rural road when his Toyota Tundra inexplicably crashed head-on into a tree.

His parents started asking questions.

"I'll always wonder in the back of my mind, 'What really happened?'" said Lori Eves.

Initially the Washington State Patrol's investigation concluded the cause of the crash was "unknown." But as the Eves kept pushing for answers, the patrol said fatigue and Chris Eves' blood alcohol level, which was at the legal limit of .08, were contributing factors to him falling asleep at the wheel.

KOMO News obtained crash photos showing extensive front-end damage. And nearly every accident report we examined indicates this crash was at a very high rate of speed.

And that leaves Chris Eves' parents wondering: How any of the crashes adds up to falling asleep at the wheel?

"I don't think Chris would have hit that stump so hard if he had been asleep," said Lori Eves. "I think his foot would have went off the pedal."

Two years later, a box is now the only way to know how fast Chris Eves was going. It's his truck's event data recorder, or EDR.

According to Toyota's Web site, the EDR could have recorded speed, pressure on the gas pedal and if he'd tried to brake.

"I know that the speed of my son's vehicle is on there," said Chris Eves' father, Ron Eves.

But car owners need a Toyota tool and software to download the information from the EDR. And for more than two years, Toyota, citing corporate policy, has refused to help.

"What if it was your child? You know would you want the EDR box open? Would you want to find out what happened to your child?" said Lori Eves.

When KOMO News first investigated last year, we took the Eves' plight to state Rep. Deb Eddy, D-Kirkland, who helped pass a bill forcing auto manufacturers to make the EDR information available.

In spite of the new law, in spite of numerous requests from the KOMO Problem Solvers, Toyota still refuses to help.

"Made me feel very, very upset about the fact that Toyota deliberately and willingly chose to ignore the data within the EDR," said Ron Eves.

Then came news of all the crashes, the massive recall and then a phone call from a Toyota dealership saying Chris Eves' Tundra was on the recall list.

"And my body just chilled," said Ron Eves.

Now the Eves think they know why Toyota refused to download Chris's EDR.

"I think that they have a big secret about a very, very bad product," said Ron Eves.

"There's been too many injuries, too many deaths, and there's too many consumers left holding the bag financially with this problem," said auto safety analyst Sean Kane.

Kane's investigation of Toyota focused national attention on the automaker as he found more than 200 crashes and well over a dozen deaths. He said Toyota's refusal to download EDR information is part of the company's overall lack of transparency.

"This is squarely Toyota's problem," said Kane. "They're the manufacturer. They're the ones that build the vehicles. They're the ones who have the proprietary technology."

Worse yet, the Eves now believe if only Toyota had looked more closely at their son's crash, it might have revealed information that could have prevented other crashes, maybe saved other lives.

"It's just about corporate greed; it is about money over lives," said Ron Eves.

Toyota has not responded to KOMO News' most recent request for information. KOMO also contacted the state Attorney General's Office, asking if there wasn't now enough public concern about Toyota's actions and new state law for the office to get involved. The office said no, and suggested the Eves might want to hire their own lawyer.