Toyota recall hearings

[Ed Anger]

I still hope Prius owners burst into flame.

[crazy canuck]

Still trying to get my &*%^&*^% Camry into the dealer for the "fix". 

[KRonn]

I also thought it was very premature of Toyota to be bringing out the fixes as the total cure. I thought they'd been saying that it wasn't a computer glitch, that the pedal mechanism needed shims (and at first the floor mats were the problem). But all along, from the reports of out of control vehicles, it seemed a nasty computer glitch was to blame since in at least some cases the drivers could do little or nothing to control the cars. 

[KRonn]

And the beat goes on. This poor guy's car wasn't even on the recall list, he says!

Has Toyota even come clean on the worst of  this stuff yet?      

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2010/03/08/stuck-accelerator-reportedly-causes-toyota-speed-control-highway/opinion/2010/03/09/decide-americas-textbooks-frontline-culture-war

Officer Helps Save Driver in Runaway Prius

AP

A Prius driver calls 911 after accelerating to pass another vehicle on a California freeway and finding that he could not control his car.



EL CAJON, California -- A California highway police officer helped slow a runaway Toyota Prius from 94 mph to a safe stop on Monday after the car's accelerator became stuck on a freeway near San Diego, authorities said.

Prius driver James Sikes said that the incident Monday occurred just two weeks after he had taken the vehicle in to an El Cajon dealership for repairs after receiving a recall notice, but he was turned away.

"I gave them my recall notice and they handed it back and said I'm not on the recall list," Sikes said.

Sikes' 2008 Prius was not covered by the accelerator recall – only the floor mat recall, ABC News reported. His Prius model allegedly has a different accelerator than the ones with "sticky" pedals. Sikes said there didn't appear to be anything wrong with his floor mat, ABC reported.

In a statement, Toyota said it has dispatched a field technical specialist to San Diego to investigate the incident.

Toyota has recalled some 8.5 million vehicles worldwide -- more than 6 million in the United States -- since last fall because of acceleration problems in multiple models and braking issues in the Prius.

On Monday, Sikes called 911 about 1:30 p.m. after accelerating to pass another vehicle on Interstate 8 near La Posta and finding that he could not control his car, the California Highway Patrol said.

"I pushed the gas pedal to pass a car and it did something kind of funny ... it jumped and it just stuck there," the 61-year-old driver said at a news conference.

"As it was going, I was trying the brakes ... it wasn't stopping, it wasn't doing anything and it just kept speeding up," Sikes said, adding he could smell the brakes burning he was pressing the pedal so hard.

A patrol car pulled alongside the Prius and officers told Sikes over a loudspeaker to push the brake pedal to the floor and apply the emergency brake.

"They also got it going on a steep upgrade," said Officer Jesse Udovich. "Between those three things, they got it to slow down."

After the car decelerated to about 50 mph, Sikes turned off the engine and coasted to a halt.

The officer then maneuvered his car in front of the Prius as a precautionary block, Udovich said.

Toyota owners have complained of their vehicles speeding out of control despite efforts to slow down, sometimes resulting in deadly crashes. The government has received complaints of 34 deaths linked to sudden acceleration of Toyota vehicles since 2000.

One of the crashes claimed the life of a CHP officer in August.

Off-duty CHP Officer Mark Saylor was killed along with his wife, her brother and the couple's daughter after their Lexus' accelerator got stuck in La Mesa.

The Toyota-manufactured loaner vehicle slammed into a sport utility vehicle at about 100 mph, careened off the freeway, hit an embankment, overturned and burst into flames.

[DGuller]

The runaway Prius wasn't even the most scary part.  The most scary part is that a police officer from a very reputable police agency told the driver to use the parking brake at 90 mph, and didn't tell him to put the car in neutral.  It's time to rethink driver education if even professionals are so incredibly clueless about how cars work.

[grumbler]

The runaway Prius wasn't even the most scary part.  The most scary part is that a police officer from a very reputable police agency told the driver to use the parking brake at 90 mph, and didn't tell him to put the car in neutral.  It's time to rethink driver education if even professionals are so incredibly clueless about how cars work.

Got a cite for the claim that the officer never told him to try to put the car in neutral?

Its time to rethink poster education if even professionally-educated posters are so incredibly clueless that they think lack of evidence is evidence of lack.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Guy's probably just looking for some publicity ala Balloon Boy.

[DGuller]

Got a cite for the claim that the officer never told him to try to put the car in neutral?

Its time to rethink poster education if even professionally-educated posters are so incredibly clueless that they think lack of evidence is evidence of lack.

Sometimes lack of evidence is a pretty good indication of the lack.  If someone says that they were told to apply the emergency brakes, and then they shut off the car and coasted after slowing down some, then it's a very good indication that shifting to neutral was not in the picture.  The reason is that none of that would be necessary if the car were shifted to neutral.

[crazy canuck]

Guy's probably just looking for some publicity ala Balloon Boy.

There is something suspicious about this story.

[grumbler]

Sometimes lack of evidence is a pretty good indication of the lack.  If someone says that they were told to apply the emergency brakes, and then they shut off the car and coasted after slowing down some, then it's a very good indication that shifting to neutral was not in the picture.  The reason is that none of that would be necessary if the car were shifted to neutral.

Could the car have been shifted into neutral, if the CHP officer had thought of it?

Is it not more likely that the officer told him to shift into neutral, turn off the engine, etc (ie all the easy, obvious stuff) before trying to do things the hard way? 

I think your claim is an extraordinary one, and lacks even ordinary proof.

[crazy canuck]

Sometimes lack of evidence is a pretty good indication of the lack.  If someone says that they were told to apply the emergency brakes, and then they shut off the car and coasted after slowing down some, then it's a very good indication that shifting to neutral was not in the picture.  The reason is that none of that would be necessary if the car were shifted to neutral.

Could the car have been shifted into neutral, if the CHP officer had thought of it?

Is it not more likely that the officer told him to shift into neutral, turn off the engine, etc (ie all the easy, obvious stuff) before trying to do things the hard way? 

I think your claim is an extraordinary one, and lacks even ordinary proof.

According to this story the officer did in fact tell the driver to try to turn off the engine but it is uncertain whether the driver followed that direction.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/35775457#35775457

[KRonn]

From the stories I've seen reported, putting one of these mad dog cars into neutral, park, reverse, or turning off the engine has no effect. The beast is on a tear and doing its own thing. I will assume that the cops and the 911 operator were talking to the driver who had likely gone through at least some or most of the above actions to try and corral this run away metal monster. That's what's so scary about some of these worst case run away cars. 

[grumbler]

From the stories I've seen reported, putting one of these mad dog cars into neutral, park, reverse, or turning off the engine has no effect. The beast is on a tear and doing its own thing. I will assume that the cops and the 911 operator were talking to the driver who had likely gone through at least some or most of the above actions to try and corral this run away metal monster. That's what's so scary about some of these worst case run away cars.

Plus, a CHP officer was killed in one of these runaways.  DGullible may believe that a police officer wouldn't try to shift into neutral or turn off his engine, even to save his and his family's life, but I don't buy it.  Frankly, the idea that DGullible knows anything more about "how cars work" than a typical CHiPer seems preposterous and would need some evidencing for me to believe it.

[Caliga]

Frankly, the idea that DGullible knows anything more about "how cars work" than a typical CHiPer seems preposterous and would need some evidencing for me to believe it.

IMHO, Erik Estrada > DGuller.

[DGuller]

Plus, a CHP officer was killed in one of these runaways.  DGullible may believe that a police officer wouldn't try to shift into neutral or turn off his engine, even to save his and his family's life, but I don't buy it.  Frankly, the idea that DGullible knows anything more about "how cars work" than a typical CHiPer seems preposterous and would need some evidencing for me to believe it.

Nothing like name-calling to gain a higher ground. 

Nevertheless, I'm actually fairly confident that I do know more about how cars work than a typical CHP officer, or the majority of people for that matter.  For one, I was part of a group that built a racecar in college in the SAE club, so that required some intimate knowledge about the working of cars.

As for the CHP officer who got killed, he did do several things wrong, and that's not in dispute.  He did try to shut off the car, but he did not know how to, as he was driving an unfamiliar loaner.  Partly the fault of Toyota for making unintuitive controls, but also partly the fault of the driver for not being familiar with them. 

He also wasted a golden opportunity to slow the car down.  He did manage to keep the car under control for some time, but he failed to use the brakes fully to stop the car, and he rode them instead.  Unfortunately for him, that boiled the brake fluid and killed the brakes eventually, and now he was SOL.  All the mistakes are understandable, but not something that an educated driver would make, unless he lost his mind (which is also understandable).