http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703834604575364871534435744.html The U.S. Department of Transportation has analyzed dozens of data recorders from Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles involved in accidents blamed on sudden acceleration and found that the throttles were wide open and the brakes weren't engaged at the time of the crash, people familiar with the findings said. The early results suggest that some drivers who said their Toyotas and Lexuses surged out of control were mistakenly flooring the accelerator when they intended to jam on the brakes. But the findings—part of a broad, ongoing federal investigation into Toyota's recalls—don't exonerate the car maker from two known issues blamed for sudden acceleration in its vehicles: "sticky" accelerator pedals that don't return to idle and floor mats that can trap accelerators to the floor. The findings by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration involve a sample of the reports in which a driver of a Toyota vehicle said the brakes were depressed but failed to stop the car from accelerating and ultimately crashing. I wonder what all the lawyers think?
This doesn't seem terribly surprising. Once the problem became known, lots of people started blaming their accidents on the issue - in many cases, possibly just to avoid their own responsibility. There was never any evidence of electronic problems - just the floor mat / sticky accelerator problem, which this study seems to suggest is legitimate.
Same thing happened to Audi 25 years ago. A whole slew of drivers were claiming there was unintended acceleration. 60 minutes even did a special where they showed somebody stepping on the break and the car accelerated instead. The NHSTA did a full-scale investigation on all the cars that were "affected" and found nothing wrong with them. They looked at the car that 60 minutes and noticed that the transmission and the brake pedal had been intentionally modified to engineer the failure on TV. Audi's ultimate solution to the problem? They put the brake and gas pedals further apart. Now...I'm not saying Toyota's completely free of blame here, but sometimes the media just plain whips people into a frenzy.
Just playing devil's advocate here, but looking at the data recorder on a possibly defective car doesn't seem that definitive to me. Perhaps the recorder didn't document the brakes being applied because they braking system was faulty?
Hell no I don't... Last year at Hebert's at Dairy Ashford and I10 a lady ran through the front wall and into the establishment because she thought she was hitting the breaks... And she hit the throttle Wide Open because she thought she was slamming on the breaks... (They should revoke her license) And no she wasn't driving a Toyota but some Chevy truck.. Stupid people everywhere..
A combination of idiot drivers and I'd imagine some faulty parts on Toyota's part as well. Neither is blameless, but neither is the sole party responsible.
This is a case where there is an actual known problem that probably affected a very small amount of people. Once it made national news, everybody that ever hard a wreck with a Toyota came forward to sue/get money/have their car fixed by blaming their own terrible driving on this known problem.
Precisely. One person gets into a wreck due to their own stupidity and decides to blame the car company instead of admitting to the possibility of being an idiot. Then another idiot sees what that idiot is doing and claims the same since they have the same car and did the same stupid thing. Then more idiots see what those idiots are doing, etc. etc.
