OT: Another runaway Toyota in San Diego, unbelievable

Here's another Toyota that allegedly ran away.

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It was first reported on the news last night. In the previous thread on this problem, I pointed out that the most mysterious case was the Lexus that crashed in San Diego after being driven for a considerable distance by a CA Highway patrol officer. I thought the typical patrol officer would have enough smarts to figure out how to do the reasonable things to stop the car, one of the most obvious being to shift it into neutral. Well, after seeing this one, maybe those CA patrol cops don't have much sense at all.

This is another case where the driver called 911. There was enough time for a cop car to respond and get to the speeding car. And through all of that, at least according to the news I've seen so far, what they told the driver to do was to use the service brakes and the emergency brakes to slow the car from 90MPH down to 50. Then they positioned the cruiser in front of the car, slowing down so that the car touched the cruiser, and then told the driver to shut off the engine. Now that is shockingly stupid, And one would think there were multiple police personnel involved, yet no one told them to shift to neutral or to just turn off the engine? After everyone hearing about this on the news for months, you would think by now every cop would know about it and have thought through what to do. They let these guys carrry guns?

Reply to
trader4
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Further experiences reported here.

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Reply to
Clot

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An updated report says the police instructed the driver to apply both regular and emergency brakes to slow the car down, then to press and hold the starter button to turn off the car. The car coasted to a stop, after which the officer placed his patrol car in front of the stopped vehicle as a further precaution.

Here's a timeline of the sudden acceleration problem as it became a national news story. I'd previously given Toyota the benefit of the doubt on this problem. After reading about how long and hard they worked to downplay, deny, and cover this up, no more.

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Reply to
Hell Toupee

I'm not convinced that some of these aren't people looking to cash in somehow.

Reply to
jamesgangnc

So, first, despite all the previous news stories the driver couldn't figure out to push the button to stop the car or to shift it into neutral? And the cops had to dispatch a cruiser, catch up with the guy who on the radio they said traveled 20 miles, to tell him to push the off button? And finally, it would seem that either the police or the guy figured he couldn't both push a button and step on the brakes at the same time?

I wouldn't be surprised that some of them are. This one in particular sounds fishy to me, especially since the news was saying he had brought the car to the dealer because he thought it was under recall. The dealer told him it was not and nothing needed to be done. Then he suddenly has this happen.

Reply to
trader4

So, first, despite all the previous news stories the driver couldn't figure out to push the button to stop the car or to shift it into neutral? And the cops had to dispatch a cruiser, catch up with the guy who on the radio they said traveled 20 miles, to tell him to push the off button? And finally, it would seem that either the police or the guy figured he couldn't both push a button and step on the brakes at the same time?

I wouldn't be surprised that some of them are. This one in particular sounds fishy to me, especially since the news was saying he had brought the car to the dealer because he thought it was under recall. The dealer told him it was not and nothing needed to be done. Then he suddenly has this happen.

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It sounded fishy to me too.

Cheri

Reply to
Cheri
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Double law suite so you can collect from the dealer too. I still don't understand why people don't shift into neutral. I don't care what the problem really is, that should work, every time.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

I can understand why some people don't. What I can't understand is how 911 operators aren't equipped by now to give out the basic advice that has been all over the news. Instead, in this case, the 911 operator dispatched a cruiser to go find the car, who even then didn't tell them the best procedure, which would be as you suggested, to put it in neutral, then slow down and steer off the road.

Reply to
trader4

"I can understand why some people don't"

I can't. What would, in your opinion, be a good reason not to?

Harry K

Reply to
Harry K

Case shown on the news the other night. Car parked nose into a parking spot, driver crawls in, fires it up, jumps curb and into a store front. Excuse? "it ran away". So the car just suddenly shifted into _drive_ and accelerated with no action by the driver? Yep, I believe in Santa, also.

Harry K

Reply to
Harry K

I didn't say there is any good reason not to try to shift into neutral. I said I can understand why there are some people who don't. It could be that they just don't think of it. Or that they think they can't shift while the car is in motion. Or maybe they think the engine will explode and kill them or cause a crash. I saw one report where on one of the runaway cars someone did shift to neutral but when they heard the engine speed up, they put it back in drive. God only knows what some people think.

Of course there are people who claim they tried to shift into neutral but could not. And there we had the big disagreement in the previous thread, with some people like you insisting that there is absolutely no reason they could not. I'm willing to give at least some of them the benefit of the doubt until we have a thorough investigation, including engineering experts that have a look at the design as well as the actual transmissions involved.

I would love to hear someone ask all the people involved in this incident yesterday what their reason was for not shifting into neutral. From what I've seen in the media, no one suggested it. That includes the driver, the 911 operator and anyone else involved in the phone call, and the officer responding. It's also curios that will all the media reports, including commentary I've heard, not one of those reports questioned why they could not have simply dealt with it that way.

One point, which I believe was yours, from the previous discussion seems to have received support from this incident. And that is that just because someone is a CA highway patrol officer doesn't mean they have any better sense of what to do than the average Joe.

Reply to
trader4

Those have been happening for years with all kinds of cars and really aren't that surprising. The ones I have seen are overwhelmingly senior citizens and it seems very likely they were confused and didn't know what they were doing. Most of the ones I've seen have also been logically explained by them mistaking the gas pedal for the brake.

Reply to
trader4

Nothing is offered to cash in on, you waste alot of time and agravation and just hope its repaired, but why people just dont turn off the motor is dumb

Reply to
ransley

DA had written this in response to

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snipped-for-privacy@> what they told the driver to do was to use the service brakes and the

You are traveling 90MPH. Roll down your window. Can you hear YOURSELF talking? Now try to hear a cop in another car at the very least 15" away. What a joke!

------------------------------------- \//.

Reply to
DA

On ABC news tonight the cop said he told him to try neutral-- the reporter didn't follow up when the driver was saying he was 'standing on the brakes'.

Guess you've never been on the wrong side of a police car's loud speaker, eh? He could hear him plain enough.

My BS meter is twitching a bit on this one. . . but my mind is still open.

Jim

Reply to
Jim Elbrecht

ahh cops have LOUD speakers amplifiers to direct people.

I had a chevy citation run away after a mechanics mistake, its really very scary and can cause panic.

In my case I put car in neutral engine blew. garage and me negoiated they paid the amount of a used engine with 80K miles, I paid the difference for a brand new GM target engine, we quibbled minor detail costs.

can was great with brand new engine

Far too many vehicles are running away nation and world wide.

Toyota deserves what it gets, bad press lost sales and BIG lawsuits.

Toyota was aware of the troubles, ignored them and actively manipulated regulators to save recall costs.

they deserve the trashing of their company, to prevent coverups in the future!!

A toyota went thru a guardrail in a home depot parking lot, and nearly dropped over 100 feet into a ravine. gal was lucky she wasnt killed

Reply to
hallerb

Totally agree with that post including in particular that last part. Also I saw ne mention of the chippy telling him to turn it off until it was at (or near) stopped.

Harry K

Reply to
Harry K

If I owned a Toyota, the first thing I'd do is completely REMOVE the gas pedal. That's the faulty part, so remove it. I can guarantee that there would not be any further problems with the car, other than possibly getting it towed to the nearest scrapyard, or converting it into a lawn ornament.

Bo Hanson

Reply to
BoHanson

info_at_1-script_dot snipped-for-privacy@foo.com (DA) wrote in news:c9a3$4b96e285$45499b77$ snipped-for-privacy@news.flashnewsgroups.com:

the cop did use the cruiser's -PA system- to talk to the Prius driver.

Reply to
Jim Yanik

A couple of weeks ago Newsweek had an article about the Toyota problems. In it was a quote from the company that made the brake pedal assembly that was blamed for creating the problem. The assertion was that Toyota's runaways started before this company became a supplier and it was not their fault.

I can't give you more detail as the magazine went into the recycle bin.

Charlie

Reply to
Charlie

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