Dad hits car claims accelerator is faulty.

Dad took my truck today and hit a sedan today coming to a stop on a straightaway and busted the cars trunk and rear. minor scuffs to the plate bumper. Said as he was breaking the engine started to pick up revs. Right before impact he put the car in neutral. So after hearing this i took the truck out and drove it around some winding roads to test different braking patterns and i failed to reproduce any result.....

anyone have this experience? accelerator sticking? i did have my pedal cut a while back on the recall.

only thing i have done to the truck is replaced the struts and leafs for a 3" lift, tires, hids, some lights, and a plate bumper.

will send the car to toyo to have them look for it but its unfortunate an accident occurred

 

what i thought

 

He hit the gas when he meant to hit the brake

 

Probably in a panic.

 

Don't want to hate on your pop, but usually when you hear about sudden unintended acceleration, it includes a driver who is unfamiliar with the vehicle. I would vote for hitting the wrong pedal.

The whole Toyota accelerator deal was found to be without merit. They said floormats, which would be obvious once vehicle was stopped and shut off. There were also a few non Tacoma models where they found that the pedal did not return as quickly as it should have, but never any indication of the vehicle actually accelerating without anyone pushing the gas pedal. Electronically speaking, it is very near impossible. Two separate sensors on the pedal assembly would have to fail at the same time.

In addition, even if the accelerator was floored, the brakes will stop the truck if the brakes were applied hard, full strength down to a stop immediately. The story of the Lexus with the brakes on fire was likely from riding the brakes over a long period of time. I have personally tested this on several vehicles including my truck. If there was a panic stop situation and your dad was holding both pedals down, one with each foot, it would stop.

Get the body work fixed and drive on. I would have zero qualms about driving it.

Edit: wrote "intended" instead of "unintended"

 

thank you for the informative post. I still intend to bring the car in to show i considered my dad's story. Just wanted to ask around the community to see if there were any related experience since his story made me worry a bit when i take the truck out. Did not intend to make a post to embarrass my father but I have a feeling he hit the wrong pedal since the tacoma has a closer than usual distance between the two. Still, i did not want to point fingers to my father to hurt his feelings or pride. Thank you for being sensitive on the matter.

 

I could be wrong but I think the salesman told me that if both are pressed down at the same time, the accelerator was indeed overridden by the brake.

And don't feel bad, you were not pointing fingers at your dad. We just saw it as a mistake that can easily happen. Poor guy probably feels super bad about all of this.

 

def not impossible, remember these days

http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/trans...ota-admits-its-runaway-car-situation-is-serio

but most likely, he did step on the wrong pedal

 

Babytruck: Now that you mention it, I remember when I had the recall done that they cut the pedal down and the also reflashed the ECU to include the brake override function. I had forgotten about that. A 2010 might have come that way to begin with. I remember I bought my truck in December 2009 and the whole thing was hitting the news shortly after. Depending on when you bought your truck you may have had the feature from the beginning. Good catch. I remember trying the gas and brake at the same time both on the way to the dealer to get the recall done, and again on the way home.

OP should be able to confirm this. I think you have to be past 1/3 throttle and applying brakes and the computer overrides the throttle.

 

mines a 10 and i think i got the flash with the pedal cut but i will try it out in the morning. thanks

 

remember that news, toyo stock did not respond well.

 

If the gas is stuck at over 25%, the brake will override.
Supposedly (I haven't tried it), if the brake is applied FIRST, the safety is disabled and the throttle may be increased.

 

ill make sure to test both methods tomorrow. thanks

 

I checked the first method.

Now.. to keep from implanting your teeth into the wheel....
#1 - Make sure you are wearing your seatbelt.
#2 - Do it going up a steep hill so you aren't actively accelerating.
#3 - Don't PLANT the brake... just enough to activate the brake light is all you need.


Now that said... if there is a failure in the brake light switch and the brake light is not coming on, the safety override will not function.

 

That story is old shit and means nothing. They Never found an issue with the software or a cause for the claims other than Operator errors or Floor Mats improperly installed.

NASA even went through the software routines and found Nothing.

 

What brake light? The override is for the normal brake pedal not the e-brake. It makes it so if the accelerator pedal is pushed in and then the brake is applied the computer cuts the input from the accelerator. The driver will feel a lose of power while the brake pedal is pushed. Let go of the brake and the computer allows the input from the accelerator and the rpms go back up.

 

Was your dad wearing BIG winter boots? The reason I ask is this happened to me one day moving wood here at the farm...


I had on my winter boots (big suckers compared to regular shoes) and when I hit the brakes the edge of my right boot caught the accelerator as I hit the brakes, the harder I pushed, the more it wasn't stopping, and, during the process I cranked the wheel hard locked to one side to miss a tree, but the truck kept going straight...


I actually had both feet on the brake pedal near the end, wheel cranked like I said, and the truck kept going straight....yup, front brakes locked, but enough power going to rear that the wheels kept pushing...not much damage, bent brackets, EZ fix, but an eye opener..


Could very well have happened to your Pops...


Just sayin'..

 

he could've come up with a better excuse.