2000 TOYOTA SIENNA User Comment / Complaint

My wife and 4 children were driving in our 2000 toyota sienna. while accelerating onto a highway, the hood abruptly released and slammed against the front windshield, causing the windshield to shatter and damaging the roof. my wife pulled over onto the side of the road almost completely blind to what was in front of her. the car was nearly hit by a semi-tractor trailer. luckily, no one was physically hurt from the incident. upon inspection of the locking mechanism, it was obvious that both the primary and secondary latches were both not working properly. it appears that the springs that are used within these mechanisms had lost their spring effectiveness. this was compounded by the "stickiness" caused by some rusting on the latch. the car was recently at a toyota dealer maintenance center. i feel that the maintenance facility should have an obligation to check this critical component. in reviewing the nhtsa database, it is clear that this is a common issue across automobiles. i would expect their to be some recurring maintenance on the latching mechanism (at 30,000 or 60,000 miles) to prevent such an incident from occurring...i do not have access to the shop maintenance manuals so i don't know if such an inspection is in the manuals. if there is no such inspection in toyota's maintenance manual, i believe that toyota is negligent on this very hazardous failure mechanism. if there is such an inspection, i believe the toyota maintenance facility should be held responsible.