Runaway Toyotas: Fact Or Fiction?
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- Milu82
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Recently, we learned about a tragic story that's made us look twice down at our feet whenever we get in a car.
Late this past summer in San Diego, a family of four died after the vehicle's accelerator pedal stuck to the floor; the driver, a California Highway Patrol Officer, couldn't get the car to stop. Eventually they crashed into another driver and hit an embankment, bursting into flames. He died, along with his wife, daughter and brother-in-law, who was able to make a grisly phone call to 911 one minute before the crash. Something clearly was wrong.
Investigators with the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that a rubber all-weather floor mat was found to be at fault. The mat was longer than the original, which pushed up to the accelerator pedal and locked it into angle that raced the engine. The issue seemed to be a closed case of a terrible mishap with a tragic ending.
That the vehicle driven by the family was a 2009 Lexus ES350 seemed to be extraneous information. Blaming Lexus certainly isn't going to bring back Mark Saylor, his wife, daughter and brother-in-law, Chris Lastrella. But, was the vehicle itself to blame?
In the Cross Hairs
A discussion seems to be brewing about that very notion and Toyota (owner of the Lexus brand) is working with NHTSA to make sure there are no defects with their accelerator pedals or the systems that manage them.
The long and short of this issue, in the eye of Toyota (who say they've been working with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, or NHTSA on the matter), is that "no defect exists in vehicles in which the driver’s floor mat is compatible with the vehicle and properly secured." In other words, there is no unintended acceleration problem officially known at this time. Toyota feels confident in their position.
Check out the link for the rest of the story:
http://autos.aol.com/article/runaway-toyotas
Late this past summer in San Diego, a family of four died after the vehicle's accelerator pedal stuck to the floor; the driver, a California Highway Patrol Officer, couldn't get the car to stop. Eventually they crashed into another driver and hit an embankment, bursting into flames. He died, along with his wife, daughter and brother-in-law, who was able to make a grisly phone call to 911 one minute before the crash. Something clearly was wrong.
Investigators with the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that a rubber all-weather floor mat was found to be at fault. The mat was longer than the original, which pushed up to the accelerator pedal and locked it into angle that raced the engine. The issue seemed to be a closed case of a terrible mishap with a tragic ending.
That the vehicle driven by the family was a 2009 Lexus ES350 seemed to be extraneous information. Blaming Lexus certainly isn't going to bring back Mark Saylor, his wife, daughter and brother-in-law, Chris Lastrella. But, was the vehicle itself to blame?
In the Cross Hairs
A discussion seems to be brewing about that very notion and Toyota (owner of the Lexus brand) is working with NHTSA to make sure there are no defects with their accelerator pedals or the systems that manage them.
The long and short of this issue, in the eye of Toyota (who say they've been working with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, or NHTSA on the matter), is that "no defect exists in vehicles in which the driver’s floor mat is compatible with the vehicle and properly secured." In other words, there is no unintended acceleration problem officially known at this time. Toyota feels confident in their position.
Check out the link for the rest of the story:
http://autos.aol.com/article/runaway-toyotas
