Toyota/Lexus has been recently under fire for "unintended acceleration." Apparently in August of this year, a Californian off duty highway patrol officer and the occupants of the Lexus ES-350 were killed in high speed accident because the accelerator pedal had become jammed. A passenger called 911 while the car was speeding out of control, and apparently the 911 recording has been released to the public (I didn't bother to look for it).
CBS did an "investigation," citing "experts" and "victims" who claim that Toyotas may be prone to unintended acceleration.
In the 1980s, CBS' 60 Minutes did a similar hack job, accusing Audi 5000 vehicles of being prone to unintended acceleration. They interviewed "experts," "victims," and even fabricated a "test" by modifying a vehicle so it appeared to suffer from unintended acceleration. The hack job harmed Audi's image in the United States, and Audi's sales did not recover for almost fifteen years.
The complaints from "victims" are usually the same and goes as follows:
"I was just sitting there in my car, the ignition was on, the transmission was in gear, and then all of the sudden the engine revved and the car began to move and the car crashed."
The problem with these claims? The accidents usually occur in a parking lot or a drive way, or when the driver is in the act of parking/coming to a stop - which not so coincidentally is when drivers usually mistake the accelerator for the brakes.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) always investigates such claims, and basically never find evidence that the vehicle was at fault.
But the August Lexus accident was different. The driver and the occupants of the vehicles were all killed, and had no reporting bias/desire to transfer blame. The vehicle was on a major road, and was not in the act of parking/coming to a stop. The NHTSA investigated the August Lexus matter, and issued a
report [Warning: PDF!].
The crashed vehicle, which was a car dealership loaner, had the wrong kind of floor mats installed. Because the floor mats were not properly secured, the accelerator pedal became jammed/caught by the bundled up floor mat when depressed.
The driver tried what most of us would do first - he tried to brake the car to a halt. Unfortunately, in most American and Japanese vehicles, the electronic control unit (ECU) in the car will not intervene when the both pedals are depressed. In many European vehicles, when both pedals are depressed, the ECU will give priority to the brake pedal input, and will shut off the accelerator pedal input and the car will stop.
To makes matters worse, the driver was not familiar with the vehicle (as it was a loaner) and the car featured a push start keyless system. Therefore the driver didn't know how to shut off the engine, and the Lexus accelerated to over 100mph, crashed, became airborne, and burned.
This tragedy could have been averted in so many ways. The dealer could have been competent and installed the correct floor mats and secured them, the driver could have inspected the vehicle and discovered the pushed up floor mats, the driver could have the presence of mind to shift the vehicle to neutral, or the driver could have learned how to shut the ignition before driving it off the dealer lot.
I'm sure the deceased victim's estate/survivors are probably suing the dealer for negligence, and will probably also go after Toyota for some product liability claim (i.e. negligent design of pedal). The plaintiffs will probably win a big judgment, or the parties will probably settle out of court, but nothing will bring the deceased back.
So here's a
Legally Irreverent Public Service Announcement.
What to do when the gas pedal gets stuck?
1. Shift to Neutral.
2. Apply the Brakes.
3. Stop & Turn off the Ignition.If by some strange mechanical defect you're unable to shift to neutral, you'll have to turn off the ignition - but only do this as a last resort, because you'll lose power steering, and brake performance will decline (ABS, brake force boost/distribution will be off).
What
not to do when the gas pedal gets stuck?
1. Call 911.
2. Pump the brakes repeatedly (if the brakes aren't slowing the car, they're not slowing the car; do not do the same thing repeatably and expect a different result).
3. Leap out of the car.
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