911 Tape of Fatal Crash as it Happen's- Toyota Recall related

Are you removing your floormats from your TAcoma?



This happened near San Diego. A CHP Officer was driving with 3 of his in laws in his Lexus and the accelerator was stuck from the floor mat. The car was going 120 when it crashed at an intersection where the freeway comes to an end. Unsure why he didn't just turn the car off or throw it in neutral

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f8b_1254173935

 

Oh shit...

 

speechless.....

 

What a tragic event.

I don't understand how any of this happened. How does his accelerator get stuck and his breaks not work at the same time. I've actually pondered about what I'd do if my accelerator got stuck. It seams like turning off the engine would do the trick. Maybe you cant turn off the engine in the new style lexus with the push start while the car is in motion. Putting the car in neutral would have also solved the problem.

 

yeah neutral for sure, but the new fancy cars seem to eliminate any kind of manual control. maybe he couldnt put it in neutral. that really sucks though

 

Seems like the guy had plenty of time to do something, he was a CHP officer so you would think he would have handled it better. I would have jumped out.

 

He was CHP, he must have tried everything right??

Or did he just panic, and freek out? Could he have slammed it into PArk?

 

newer vehicle wont allow a moving vehicle to be put in park. but i have put my truck in neutral and turned my truck off while it was moving before?

 

That's a good thing to know! God forbid it happen to anyone of us, but if it did..now I know to just turn the effin thing off.

 

man that was an eerie audio. but yeah, i definitely think they could've done something to try and stop the vehicle. but there's no point with the and's/if's/but's...they were killed, sucks

 

If you push the button for 3 seconds it will kill the engine, but I didn't know that until after this was on the news, so he probably didn't either. He still could have put the car in nuetral and used the brakes.

 

They were killed..?

 

Button ?

yes

It took until an off-duty California state trooper and three members of his family were killed when the throttle of their their 2009 Lexus ES350 got stuck before Toyota moved to recall 3.8-million cars & trucks.

http://www.motoring.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5185072&fSectionId=753&fSetId=381

 

Yeah the key is a RFID fob and there is a button where the key usually goes....."Push to start"

I said it in one of the other threads- I don't think you want to kill the engine at high speed- You will lose brake and power steering boosting. The Rev limiter will protect the engine while you slow and pull off you a safe place...then kill it.

 

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/of...ta-recall-3-8million-vehicles-tacoma-too.html

 

The same thing happened to me in my Tocoma, the brakes only slowed it a little. I put the shifter in neutral, but in stayed in gear. I realized it was the floor mat and pulled it loose. I didn't try to turn the engine off.

 

Yes, I agree that this is a tragic accident, but at what point does a driver need to take responsibility for his or her own actions, and not blame a manufacturer. (I.E - McDonalds hot coffee lawsuit)
Floor mats have been moving around, and curling up since the invention of floor mats.
How many times does a driver need to see that the mat is getting close to the pedal before they remove it? I'm sure a floor mat does not move from proper position to under a pedal in 1 trip.

 

I realize why a lot of people have been asking, "how could this have possibly happened to a highly trained CHP officer?" Well, I have a hunch as to exactly how this happened, and some have started to touch this topic already.

On many newer vehicles there are electronic "safety, or in this case, death wishes" that prevent the operator from placing the vehicle in neutral while the vehicle is in motion. I cant say, and I'm not sure if anyone will be able to say if the man behind the wheel actually tried to put the car into neutral, although, if he did there is a high likelihood that he would not have been able to enter neutral. As for turning the engine off while under power, any human with reasonable leg force can operate a modern vehicle without power assistance. There is a fair amount of vacuum reserve that is stored on the vehicle in a vacuum reservoir and would be more then sufficient to stop the vehicle with power assistance. Even without power brakes it is more then possible to stop the vehicle safely by applying a large amount of pressure to the brake pedal. Steering is also easily achieved at speed without assistance, it is only at lower speeds where this can become a challenge. As for the steering wheel locking, turn the ignition OFF and then back to the ON position without starting the vehicle and you are good to go. (with a standard ignition system)

I cant speak for the "push to start" ignition system in the Lexus' as I am not familiar with there particular system, although there is a good chance that the operator was completely unfamiliar with the vehicle considering it was a loaner.


Tragic event all around. God bless their family.