LA Times: Toyota Unintended Acceleration Death Toll Tops 100

They should also count the death toll of other car manufacturers.

 

I say they lie. Their investigation looks to have consisted of reading Mr. Ditlow's press release. When you see his name, insert Ralph Nader. He really runs the Center for Auto Safety. Kane and Claybrooke are his disciples too. It was Ralph Nader who started screaming about car electronics 30 years ago. He's a Luddite. He's probably running the Center from his princess telephone and typewriter.

Tim Howard makes for some interesting reading on Wikipedia. Doesn't sound like he has time to be more than a figurehead for Northeastern University.

 

I think we've heard enough. It's time for the FBI to start arresting people who claim SUA, just like they did during the Pepsi syringe scare.

 

From the blurb in the link:

"...The Los Angeles Times says its review of public records indicates 102 people have been killed in Toyota vehicle accidents linked to unintended acceleration.

Two things to remember when reading the piece: One, that the number of reports increases when a problem is reported and many of those reports are later found to be unrelated to the problem. And two, that in the vast majority of cases fully investigated where a cause can be found, unintended acceleration incidents end up being a case of drivers standing on the gas pedal when they believe (and have reported, if they survived) they were standing on the brake..."

In the article "...Many of the recent complaints involved crashes from several years ago and were filed only after Toyota announced its recalls...." - And they include cars not using the same technology as the recalled cars. (like the Prius Gen II of recent news)

Unfortunately, many people see a headline or hear a soundbite, and that sticks with them as the truth. Hysteria sells. Boring, rational explanations that need weeks or months to properly formulate aren't news. Idiocracy is on the horizon.

 

The good news is that fewer and fewer people pay any attention to the mainstream media. They are not much trusted. What's funny is to hear the right-wingers scream about the liberal press, while I'm screaming about the overwhelming conservative bias of the AP.

We really can do a lot of good with boring, rational explanations that do get googled. Unfortunately, this site is not the best place for that since we have a very busy group of anti-Toyota posters. At least we can make sure reason is represented.

 

I don't know. I'd still trust a good reporter over some random web posting idiot like me.

BTW, thanks to Tom for pointing out some important things from both the linked report and the actual LA Times article. Here's another, from the Times piece:

Some of the new reports were from Toyota owners who said their cars accelerated on their own, causing fatal crashes; most were from families of dead motorists who said they want the government to determine whether sudden acceleration caused the crashes.

​

I could imagine that if I had a family member killed in an accident that made no sense to me that I might ask someone to investigate. But the Times says asking someone to investigate is all that's been done in most of these cases. That's a far cry from having evidence linking the accidents to a problem with the car.
So yes, the headline of the LA Times piece is way overstated, though the subhead is reasonably accurate:

Headline:
Toyotas' sudden acceleration blamed for more deaths

Subhead:
Including a recent surge of complaints, the defect has been raised as a possible cause of 102 fatalities, according to NHTSA records, lawsuits and police reports.

And the Tirekicker blogger grossly exaggerates even the LA Times headline with his own headine:
Toyota Death Toll: 102

The Tirekicker blogger also grossly exaggerates what the Times story says in the first sentence of his posting:
The Los Angeles Times says its review of public records indicates 102 people have been killed in Toyota vehicle accidents linked to unintended acceleration.

See why I don't think blogging is the cure for actual investigative reporting (with all its faults as it is practiced today)?

 

100%. See Audi.

-Brad

 

There aren't many good reporters out there. Far too many are just re-phrasing the latest press release. Or they are just playing follow the leader.

Woodward and Bernstein would be appalled.

When I come to Priuschat, I usually have another browser open. Don't think I'm agreeing with your self-deprecation, but even "posting idiots" can raise questions to be researched. You can't trust even folks on here not to have been paid by ATAC, a "google monkey" is almost certainly on here. And maybe someone paid (not just employees!) by Toyota or dealers.

 

I don't remember any audi's blamed for fatalities only crashes. Today most cars have an easy way to check if the brakes were hit. Toyota should investigate all of these.

It obviously is less than 100%, because some of these have been investigated. Toyota has blamed floor mats in the cases where it has been determined brakes were applied. They can not tell in avalon cases because of cripped software. In other cases toyota refuses to read the edr unless the family hires a lawyer that can convince the court through toyota's objections to issue a court order to read the edr. In these cases toyota has blamed the driver.

 

The Audi 4000 series had complaints that they would take themselves out of park and pin the driver against their garage door or some other object. Remember one incident where it was claimed the car went completely through the garage and out the other side. Don't remember fatalities, but lots of injury claims. The 5000 had a UA flap that mirrors what's going on now with Toyota.

Like the Prius, after the lawyers jumped in you could pick up a nice one for a song.

 

The Audi driver interview I still remember, of a tearful mother who pinned her son against the garage wall as she put all her strength into the 'brake pedal', was certainly about a fatality.

 

You are spinning it. Floor mat did kill CHP officer and family members in the rental Lexus. What do you expect Toyota to do? If they did not recall the floor mat, the owners will be more outraged. The way I see, Toyota went out of their way to satisfy the owners and recalled the mat to prevent further escalation.

The case of EDR, Toyota only had one in existence. It seems the need for it came as a surprise to them. They are making more well ahead of 2012 deadline.

Toyota has been responsive in reading the data from Sikes's Prius and the case in NY stone wall crash case. That shows they learned from their mistake.

 

Awww man, I wonder how she could have lived since she learned the brake pedal she was pressing so hard was the accelerator pedal.

 

When you read this, even though we have a great car to drive, you have to ask, Have people been killed by this phenomenon? Answer is yes! Is it 100? Who knows? Has toyota known about this issue? You get all kinds of reports on tv, newspapers etc, do you think the floor mats cause the sticking accelerator? I personally don't believe so. I still think its electronics as does some of the other drivers I know.

So don't lets just see what the cause of the prius acceleration really is.

 

That wouldn't be categorized as unintended acceleration, which is why I didn't see it in the NHTSA statistics.

I hope toyota investigates every case, and determines driver error if it exists. If there are problems in the electronics or software the brake override should help prevent fatalities in the future.

 

response in bold

 

so far, zero cases have been attributed to electronic problems. how long should we wait to convince the lawyers? it will be years and they have no evidence. it may never be provable, but they may win a few cases on testimony alone.

 

The suggestion had already been made. And like the other interviewed drivers, she had absolutely no doubt that she was on the 'brake'.

Cases like this make it very difficult to talk publicly about 'pedal misapplication.' But after having done it myself (resolved quickly without damage thanks to tools most drivers no longer have), I'm not so shy.

 

Product liability lawyers usually don't intend to prove anything in court. They intend only to win in the court of public opinion. They look for settlements from companies looking to stem the bloodflow- legalized extortion IMO.