break. it is becoming apparently clear that toyota executives were scrambling to figure out the best way to deal with their huge accelerator problems. one of the company's top public relations executives warned toyota that it needed to come clean about the sticking pedals. they were saying that toyota was not protecting our customers by keeping quiet about this. pretty serious language. in an e-mail about the recently retired vice president for public affairs, he writes, we may have a ten den sen for mechanical failure in accelerator pedals. he says, the time to hide is over. it was sent in january, days before toyota's massive recall. what's more, toyota had failed to alert u.s. regulators even though the automaker was busy dealing with this very same sticky pedestrian tall problem in 31 europe countries and canada.