LA Times: (Toyota) Crash reports tell of horror

One guy drove 20 miles at speeds of 100 MPH before hitting another car? Uhhh, was he smart enough to drive. Ever herd of neutral?

I feel for the guy, but 20 miles wondering what to do?

 

The reason for posting graphic details of a few accidents is the absence of a statistical trend in the accident rate. The formula is straight forward:

• fatalities/100 million miles - the standard the NHTSA reports
• fatalities in one year - available from the NHTSA FARS data
• vehicles on road - available from annual sales
• 15,000 miles per year - the EPA estimated annual miles

The LA Times cherry picks accidents without doing the fundamental risk calculations. For example, it took hours to assemble and report that Prius fatalities ran half the national average from 2001-07. So I don't fault the LA Times for cherry picking accident reports for articles because an accurate rate of fatalities per vehicle mile is likely to be boring.

Take another case, such as this fatal Jetta accident that killed a young driver, February 10, 2010:

Then read the news article. The LA Times is sensationalizing a few accidents and trying to imply Toyotas are flying off the roads ... while barely mentioning the accelerator recall. In the case of this fatal Jetta accident, there are calls for limiting driving and/or including data logging so parents can monitor driving behavior ... like this nonsense:


Oh, is it in bad taste to sensationalize a couple of accidents and behavior of braggadocious Jetta advocates? Of course it is yet the LA Times is doing it for all Toyotas.

Bob Wilson

 

Man, this is disgusting. I am sick and mad of Toyota witch hunt :rant:. I wish to know who's behind all that. That really smells.

I am personally convinced that all this mud throwing is deliberate and purposeful.

 

Why would you believe all these stories? They were obviously given to the LA Times by the plaintiffs' lawyers. If they have to use the media to tell their story, they must be lacking in proof. Otherwise they would take it to court and collect their third.

 

It's interesting to read the second story "It was like a car on a slingshot. She was slung across the street into that building". This was on a 2003 Camry which is not one of the models subject to the current investigation. That one is actually very reminiscent of accidents where someone hits the accelerator instead of the brake.

This type of accident happens more often than you think, not to be ageist but you'd be surprised how often this can happen with elderly drivers. It happens when the driver goes to slow slightly but their foot accidentally hits the accelerator instead of the brake. It's easy to think "doh that would be so obvious, I'd know immediately what had happened and just move my foot across to the brake", no problems. But actually it's much easier to get confused than you think. (I don't mean it's easy to mix up the two pedals in the first place. I'm just saying that after the initial mistake is made it's much harder to recover from the situation than you'd think). Your brain operates gas and brake very automatically, pretty much like hard wired instinct rather than logical reasoning (which would be too slow for emergencies). So when you suddenly feel your speed increasing even though (you think) your foot is on the brake then the only immediate thing you can "think" (really instinct) do is press it harder.

I know it sounds crazy but it really happens, a woman in my street did it backing out of her car port. She took out the whole left side of her car port, and then a small tree in her front yard, and then her mail box and then flew right across the road (jumping both kerbs) before finally realizing the brake/gas mix up and regaining control just inches from hitting the house opposite! The way she explained it later was that it's like going into shock that you cant stop and your car is racing out of control, you just keep pressing harder and cant think to do anything else, it really takes 4 or 5 seconds before the rational brain kicks in and says "hey klutz, you're pressing the gas instead of the brake" and only then you can finally take correct action.

 

Toyota could put an end to all of the hysteria by funding a peer-reviewed investigation into alleged EMI impact on the electronics of the cars. It would be expensive (and it might cost Toyota some serious cash if the study were to find some problems with electronic control systems), but a truly objective study would put an end to the hysteria.

But for some reason, Toyota is staying mum hoping that with time things will blow over. Things might blow over; but I wouldn't bet on it. Especially with the interest that is occurring. News outlets don't report on stuff that no one is interested in.

 

i dont like jetta..
i have seen 2 pictures with jetta crashes... those things are flying off the road
i gues the problem is the high font care wieght of the "clean" diesel ice's

 

Dear readers, you have yet to ENVISION how far this will go. Every drunk that has crashed their car (toyota or not) within the last 15 years have begun to come out of the wood work:

"See? I TOLD you it wasn't my fault that I crashed (killed the family, etc ... put your own disaster here) it was a runaway toyota!"

Whether the drunk was driving the toyota ... or claimed to be swerving to avoid the Toyota. We have before us, the perfect scapegoat. Deep pockets too! Who wants to sue a penniless drunk?

.

 

Let the trial lawyer fund the peer-reviewed investigation. Let NHTSA fund the peer-reviewed investigation.

Please take a look at the webinar on accelerator testing.

Bob Wilson

 

And in the meantime, Toyota gets whacked with the endless stories about EMI. But hey, it is their decision.

 

The problem with them funding it is that if Toyota is exonerated, naysayers will claim that the study was biased in Toyota's favor because they paid for it.

 

It is harder for the challenges to stick if the study is peer-reviewed. Do you hear any credible challenges being made to new drugs that are approved by the FDA? Who pays for the data that is provided as part of the application for FDA approval? A similar approach could be taken by Toyota.

 

It is better if a Toyota skeptic pays for the study or the two, entities independent of Toyota fund the study ... but hey

Would you like to pay me to study EMI in a Prius?


Yes, I'm ready:


Bob Wilson

 

You mean like this crash in the Seattle region?

A Toyota Tundra inexplicably ran off a straight rural road at very high speed, into a tree and killing the young driver. The parents want answers.

Do you think the 0.08 blood alcohol level might have been involved?

To be a bit more fair, they want Toyota to reveal the contents of the Event Data Recorder, and Toyota refuses.

 

JEEEZ.... What a society we live in. A company with deep pockets is going to have those pockets shortened since we live in the most litigious society in the free world. I'm sorry but I am going to have to be very thick skinned regarding some of these accidents where there was loss of life. Where did these people learn to drive?

I have a pilot's license and though I have not flown for quite a few years I just wish that DRIVERS were given some better training when dealing with situations like stuck throttles. I remember during my training that we had to learn how to land the plane when it lost power. I did numerous emergency landings (practice). I bet if the drivers in this country had to meet the standards of Germany for their auto license, there would be a lot less accidents on our roads today.

One thing good does come out of this. I bet that Toyota dealers are probably willing to negotiate more positively with price on the Prius. I still have faith in Toyota and will get a new Prius when the one I have now finally dies.

 

The thing I find weird about that article is that the parents want to know how fast the truck was going. Obviously it was going at a very high rate of speed to cause that much damage. But let's say it was determined that it was going 70 instead of 60. What difference would that make? Zero. So would throttle position info. No one can know if the driver's foot was on the accelerator or not. So it's irrelevant.

And do they really expect Toyota to willingly incriminate (potentially) itself?

 

I find in unacceptable that toyota will not provide the information from the cars. In the congressional hearings they said they would provide a way in 2011. This really should be illegal. All american automakers have information available. The one foreign automaker I deal with other than toyota, is bmw. They encrypt the data but will decrypt it for a fee, and I believe decryption is free to nhtsa.

I agree that this case is likely user error, but as longl as toyota keeps information secret from its users, there will remain doubts that they are being truthful in the less trivial cases.

 

There is a saying - where there is smoke there is fire.... Toyota could put an end to the smoke; but since they are not, the story continues.