Read about this accident on the Lexus forum (wife drives a Rx400h). The 911 call indicates that the accelerator was stuck and they could not shut off the "push button start" car. All four passengers including the police officer driving were killed. Anyone heard of this happening in a GM vehicle. If the button fails to shut off the engine in a situation like this what are your options??? throw it neutral and hope the rev limiter prevents damage, use the transmission to stop (ouch!) or ???
Read about this accident on the Lexus forum (wife drives a Rx400h). The 911 call indicates that the accelerator was stuck and they could not shut off the "push button start" car. All four passengers including the police officer driving were killed. Anyone heard of this happening in a GM vehicle. If the button fails to shut off the engine in a situation like this what are your options??? throw it neutral and hope the rev limiter prevents damage, use the transmission to stop (ouch!) or ???
Yeah... Very sad story. While I hate to armchair quarterback something as sad as this, I've wondered from the first time I heard about this how someone who had the ability to dial 911 and make a phone call didn't have the presence of mind to throw it in neutral. You would think someone in the car could have thought about that. But it seems that they did not. I can't imagine the terror of having a powerful car, especially one that you are unfamiliar with, accelerate uncontrollably like that. I'm sure they did everything they could think of under the circumstances.
As for our cars, the button will shut the car down any time you push it. I did it by mistake once. Threw it in neutral and it started right back up. Hardly slowed down.
Last edited by shockwaveharry; 09-29-2009 at 02:45 AM.
Reason: Oops...
Location: Sandy Eggo, Calif. Don't blame me, I voted for the American
This accident happend a few miles from my house. The vehicle would not shift into neutral, no could the driver (A veteran CHP officer) turn the engine off. Seems this has happened over 50 times with this type vehicle. Witnesses reported all four brakes had flames coming out from them. Horrible accident. I think he left the road at 120 mph!!
My original comment posted incompletely. I'm sorry if it sounded insensitive. That was not my intention.
I heard the 911 recording on LA's KFI and it was a male voice that was reported to be the driver. He sounded calm for being in such an intense situation and I contribute that to his job training. I don't think a pilot would have sounded any more grounded than he did.
Found this info on safetyresearch.net:
Quote:
CAMPAIGN #06V253000
MAKE: LEXUS, TOYOTA
MODEL: RX400H, RX330, HIGHLANDER, HIGHLANDER HEV
YEAR: 2006
NUMBER OF AFFECTED VEHICLES: 367594
ON CERTAIN SPORT UTILITY AND HYBRID VEHICLES, THE TWO RETAINING CLIPS FOR THE DRIVER'S SIDE FORWARD CENTER CONSOLE CAN BECOME LOOSE. IF BOTH CLIPS SEPARATE FROM THE FLOOR CARPET COVER, THE COVER MAY LEAN TOWARD THE ACCELERATOR PEDAL, CAUSING INTERFERENCE WITH THE ACCELERATOR PEDAL ROD.
As for the trans, While it is an electronically controlled transmission, there is probably a shift cable connected directly to the trans to engage park. I don't claim to know anything about this vehicle and I am merely speculating here, but I don't believe there is a car that you couldn't select neutral while in motion. Here is a picture of the shifter:
Sad that this happened. There is a certain "call 911" mentality. The situation required a split second decision. No phone call was going to provide a fast enough answer.
I remember mountain climbing PRIOR to cell phones. There seemed to be a much greater sense of need for self reliance or, at least, the knowledge that if there was an accident or injury of some kind it would take the time for someone to actually go for help OR wait until it arrived because the party was late returning.
Now, people get themselves in situations that defy common sense and call for help on their cell phones. Sometimes the calls skip around and actually connect. Sometimes those needing help are in a jam of such a magnitude ( usually weather ) that no human intervention is possible to save them.
Sad to hear this. I personally do not like computer controlled cars. I much preferred a gas pedal connected to the carb by an actual physical cable running through the firewall. That's the kind of fly by wire I like....the wire being the cable.
My original comment posted incompletely. I'm sorry if it sounded insensitive. That was not my intention.
I heard the 911 recording on LA's KFI and it was a male voice that was reported to be the driver. He sounded calm for being in such an intense situation and I contribute that to his job training. I don't think a pilot would have sounded any more grounded than he did.
Found this info on safetyresearch.net:
As for the trans, While it is an electronically controlled transmission, there is probably a shift cable connected directly to the trans to engage park. I don't claim to know anything about this vehicle and I am merely speculating here, but I don't believe there is a car that you couldn't select neutral while in motion. Here is a picture of the shifter:
That shifter belongs to a Toyota Sienna Minivan Limited model.
why didn't the driver slam on the brakes and pull the hand brake up to atleast slow the car down.
The brakes probably faded after the first 15 seconds.
Once again, just an educated guess here, but I think he may have just completed a passing maneuver or had applied full throttle in an attempt to release the sticking accelerator, but just made the situation worse. The car may have slowed, even substantially, on his first few attempts at stopping the car. The moment he released the brakes the car had to have kicked down a few gears and started accelerating again. Continuous heavy application of the brakes will build a lot of heat very quickly and cause the brakes to fade. Once that happens, there are literally no brakes left. The pedal will hit the floor and the car won't slow at all.
The hand brake would have almost no effect on slowing the car down. It's either a very small drum brake in the rear rotor or a mechanical application of the rear brake calipers only.
Not many options when you're going 120 and can't shut off the motor or put in nutural. I suppose he could have started rubbing the guard rail or jersey wall to scrub off speed.
IIRC the CHP officer wasn't the driver, the brother in law was and the vehicle was a lexus ES rental. If you look at the picture of the ES shifter (not the ones posted above), it's possible that the car was in sport mode, the driver shifted it upwards towards the big green N, and when nothing happened (since it's essentially shifting up a gear) he probably panicked and assumed neutral wasn't working and went and tried the next thing. They probably tried to shut the engine off too, but with the ES you have to hold it down for 3 seconds. Being in an unfamiliar car may have unfortunately led to their demise.
hmm ^ sounds very reasonable, i also think many factors were involved.
I had a mazdaspeed 3 before, and stuck pedal happened to me twice. Once on passing and once on a onramp. I had a regular key ignition and manual tranny... On passing i reached about 110 in an instant (5th gear passing a car that was weaving from 70-80mph), threw it in neutral right away, breaking heavily and turned the car off (while rolling at 60mph), turned it right back on and it was fine... similar thing happened the other time, was a bit scarier cause there we cars on the road, i had do a little chess match. Took it to the dealer, couldnt' replicate the problem...
I would think trying to shift into N would be hard to do because you would put it in R first.
And besides most if not all automatic trans require that you have the brake pedal depressed prior to shifting.
With the foot throttle wide open maybe the brake pedal won't release the shifter.
What!?!
N is clearly just above D and before R, as it is on every auto I've ever seen. I've also never, ever seen an auto where you have to depress the brake, or do anything in particular for that matter to get to D from N.
Something just doesn't add up in this tragic story. But either way one more reason to be glad I got rid of my IS.
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Fatal Accident - computer gone wild?
