Sudden Acceleration - One Fact That's Hard to Dismiss

The fatality study you've done is excellent, and I'd enjoy seeing it once extended for another year of data. However, "fatalities" aren't predictive of "incidents" which are the case in point right now for Toyota.

To look at just one of several perspectives, sudden acceleration and impaired braking are more likely, I believe, to cause an accident when traffic is congested -- less room to maneuver, less time to think and act. Admittedly, there are congested highways during rush hours (and, for some reason I can't fathom, congested highways 24-hours per day in LA), but generally there is less room to react and maneuver in city driving than in highway driving. I haven't looked it up recently, but a safety engineer for one of the domestics said that incident reports were higher, but deaths lower, in city driving.

One other comment about Prius stats. While I've got no proof of the matter, I believe the Prius attracts a select group of drivers many of whom take a lot of care in how they drive. That would make one expect a Prius accident rate substantially lower than for other vehicles as a group. (well, ok ... except those hit from behind while gliding ...). Despite its admirable standing in fatalities, as I understand it, the insurance company data still showed some kinds of incidents to be much higher than expected, and those consistent with acceleration and braking problems.

 

Thanks very much for the reference to the GES, which I've not run into before. When time allows, I'll look into their data and see where it points.

One afterthought, in looking for comparable cars, one could consider using the 2000 - 2007 Taurus. It wasn't all new, but the car had a major going-over for the 4th gen 2000 model (considering that they had all but ruined it in the 3rd gen format); this iteration ran through 2007. I think it's weight is around 3,300 pounds [am going by memory on all of this - I owned a 2000 Taurus until I traded it in last year on a Prius]. Heaven knows it was a family car, and not something sportier or unusual.

As a footnote, at introduction, the 2000 Taurus offered, and included in most trim levels, ABS. But Traction control and side-impact air bags were in a safety package, which included ABS if not already on the car's trim level. (By the way, there was a dash switch to shut off the traction control, though it would re-set to on the next time the car was started).

If I remember correctly, about 5% of 2000 Taurus's sold had the safety package. The problem wasn't Ford's ability or desire to put it into as many cars as orders called for, but that the safety package wasn't ordered in most dealer-inventory and customer-specified vehicles. :der: Safety ... and no one cared. I actually hunted for a while for the car I wanted because I wouldn't buy one without that package (and admittedly was locked into getting a silver one).