Charles Krauthammer's column, "Toyota, Vioxx and the Price of Modernity" (Feb. 26 MDJ) demonstrates the wrong-headed approach of some in the media elite to the problems facing Americans every day. The gist of his column is that deaths and injuries caused by defective products are a price everyone has to pay because of progress. That approach is totally wrong and that type of thinking actually contributes to the problem by excusing manufacturers from the obligation to produce safe products.

The problems that have recently surfaced regarding Toyota and Lexus with deadly sudden acceleration are only the most recent revelations concerning defective products which kill and maim innocent people, and which have gone uncorrected because of a corporate cover up.

We have now learned Toyota and Lexus owners have been complaining about sudden acceleration problems since 2000 - and their complaints were ignored by Toyota. Worse, apparently Toyota knew all the way back to 2005 that its sudden acceleration problem was due to defects in its onboard computers, rather than sticky accelerator pedals and floor mats. The Los Angeles Times reported on Feb. 27 that Toyota deliberately withheld information about design problems by the creation of secret electronic "Books of Knowledge" about design problems accessible only by Toyota personnel.

The Chicago Tribune on Feb. 28 printed a detailed account of 56 deaths caused by Toyota and Lexus automobiles attributable to the unintended acceleration problem. The accounts are chilling. People were being trapped in out-of-control automobiles with no way to stop or even slow down.

Consumers depend upon Federal regulations and government agencies like the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Food and Drug Administration and the Consumer Product Safety Commission to protect the public. But those agencies and our federal government do not have sufficient manpower to discover every defective product, particularly when the manufacturer is actively engaged in a cover-up. Toyota has spent millions on lobbyists who are experts at weakening federal regulations and co-opting the regulatory bodies that administer them. Reduction in government revenue as a result of the serious economic problems facing the country has taken away from the resources of the federal agencies who are supposed to be watching out for the public safety, as well.

The American public is increasingly left with our court system, not only as a means to obtain compensation, but also as a deterrent to prevent manufacturers from flooding the marketplace with unsafe products. Product liability lawsuits are a critical part of our system of justice. By holding the manufacturers of defective products responsible for their misdeeds, the public is protected because of the threat of financial punishment. Such lawsuits also provide help to the federal agencies that oversee product safety by giving increased access by regulators and the public to safety info generated in pretrial discovery in such cases, according to a recent column in the New York Times by Mark Robinson and Kevin Calcagnie.

That has resulted in stronger regulations, safer new products, and the removal of dangerous products from the market, they wrote. Last year, in Wyeth v. Levine, the Supreme Court noted that state tort suits "can serve as a catalyst" for regulatory action, they continued.

"Litigation has not only advanced public safety, but has encouraged improvement in products almost too numerous to mention: air bags, seat belts, child safety seats, tires, minivan doors, hot water vaporizers, children's pajamas, farm machinery, firearms, building materials, tobacco products, intra-uterine contraceptive devices, tampons, sleeping pills, anti-depressants, pain medications, appetite suppressants and many more. Toyota is just another sign of how much work remains to be done. Strong product liability laws remain vital to public health and safety-no matter how passionate the political debate on tort reform," the two wrote.

The cries for "tort reform" and the condemnation of trial lawyers as purveyors of "jackpot justice" belie the importance of product safety litigation and the role the civil justice system plays in keeping our nation safe from dangerous and defective products. Without the civil justice system and the threat that litigation poses to manufacturers of defective products and equipment the American public would be at substantial greater risk of death and injury on a daily basis. We in the United States must always strive to require products to be made as safe as possible for our citizens and, most importantly, to protect our children.

Ron Lowry is a past president of the Cobb County Bar Association and currently serves as a member of the Board of Governors of the State Bar of Georgia.