Toyota Tacoma Flipped in Holy Jim 10/10/14

Well I was out at Holy Jim this afternoon and I stumbled upon this:



When we took a look at it we found a pillow and trd off road floor mats that looked like they had been used to make a makeshift bed under the rear of the truck. I assume that the crash occurred at night(10/9/14) and that they'd spent the night with the truck. We heard from some people that the couple had been picked up early today (10/10/14) and that no one was hurt. They also said that the reason that they crashed was because their steering locked up and they went up the side of the road and tipped over. I checked the plates and the car is registered in North Carolina. When we left Holy Jim around 6:30, two police officers were at the scene. It's an access cab 4x4 TRD Off Road package Automatic. Not sure who's it is but hopefully they are ok and that they get their car back.​

 

Damn

 

Somebody had a bad day

 

Ya seriously. You would think that they would have at least come back for their car...

 

I'm curious as to how their steering locked up

 

Me too. Never heard of this happening before.

 

Wouldn't it be easier to just say "I was doing DUMB $h** and it went seriously wrong...."

So many people think that they become Mickey Thompson or something once they hit a dirt road.

 

Damn, no way! This is 3 min from my house.

Interesting story, though...this is the second instance where I heard somebody's steering locked up and sent them up a berm and over onto the lid. I witnessed the other instance at Mojave Rd last month. It was also a 4x4 Taco.

From what I understand, the plastic fender flare loosens up and wraps itself in the front suspension/CV axle, not allowing the wheel to be turned, and resulting in going places you dont want to, like up a berm. Makes more sense if you've trimmed it to fit a bigger tire, because the mounting screws are no longer doing their job at the bottom

Wonder how many other people have had this issue.

 

It happened a few times on my old '88 5 lugger. I put an aftermarket replacement ignition switch in it because the stock one wore out to the point where you could start the pickup with a flathead screwdriver.

One day I let a friend borrow my pickup, and he attempted to start it with the worn down door key. It screwed up something in the ignition switch, and it would lock the wheel when in the run position. It wasn't a full lock. I was able to break it loose by jarring the wheel, but it locked up a few times while I was going down the road. I had to reef on the wheel pretty hard to jar it loose, and I nearly went in the ditch a few times. Finally I jarred it hard enough to where it either broke the wheel lock or popped the lock into the out position.

The ignition switch in my 2014 Taco looks exactly the same as the one in my '88 did.

 

Oh, you must live in RSM or in the canyon then. I'm only about 25 min away at chapman and jamboree. This is my first time hearing about this and I got this information from a group of guys out there who said they talked to the couple. If the issue is what you described above then maybe they deserve compensation from Toyota.

 

If you guys are running bigger tires. DEFINITELY trim the plastic liner. Make sure nothing can grab those liners it'll wrap around your tires and lock your steering wheel.

Happened to my brother. The plastic liner grabbed came off and got caught in his tires and pulled the car towards the right. He slid across 3 lanes and ended up in the dirt.

 

Or maybe they were just screwing around, rolled it and are trying to find a good enough excuse that someone (Toyota or insurance) will replace the truck. Just saying

 

I had my work boots get stuck in the steering linkage inside the cab on my 5lugger. I have jacked up ankles and have to push the clutch in with my foot sideways. When my boot got stuck, the steering rod turned my boot even more so that my boot was directly behind the brake. I had to grab the E-brake to stop, take my boot off and get under the dash to pull it out. Always wore shoes or just took my boots off after that. Weird things happen when you bouncing around, could've had something bounce up from the floorboard.

 

Was your old 5 lugger a 4x4? Cause from what I'm hearing it's only happened to 4x4 and not 4x2.

I could see that happening to trucks with modded suspension but this truck's suspension was all stock.

 

What is that in front of the left front tire? Would be driver if the truck was upright. Looks like it could possibly be fender liner but pic is too blurry to tell. Maybe just a hat who knows..... The shadow knows....

 

I didn't notice anything when I was at the scene but I'm trying to find more pictures of the truck from my friends to see if we can get a better idea of what happened.

 

Anyone know if it's still there?

 

Ouch, not good, glad they are okay.

 

4x2

 

Did the side airbags deploy?