Out of Control Acceleration or Hyperbole

Hi Everyone:

Well it seems that Toyota's out of control acceleration problem with certain vehicles has gotten worse. Or has it? Last year there were approximately less then 100 reported problems with the acceleration. This year, remember that it is only March, there are thousands of reported problems. How is that possible? I believe that when people started to hear about the problem from the media, they jumped on the bandwagon for whatever reason.

Toyota's first solution to the problem was to stabilize the driver's floor mat. That would then prevent the mat from pressing on the accelerator. I guess that was a possibility. I also believe that they did some kind of work on the actual gas pedal itself. Again I think that is a possibility.

A College Professor, out west, with a PhD in Automotive engineering was able to mimic the out of control acceleration problem by actually opening up the supposed involved computer system and crossing some wires. He said that proved that the acceleration problem was definitely possible. So in order to mimic the problem he had to cross some wires? Of all the reported problems, who in their right mind would have done that? I don't think anyone did that. Sorry Professor but your theory doesn't make any sense.

A Consumer Reports automotive engineer dissected the computers in question in 1 of each of the recalled models and found absolutely nothing wrong with them. Consumer Reports has not been able to copy the problem and has not experienced the problem with any of the "suspected" vehicle models during all of the testing that they do.

Does this out of control acceleration problem sound familiar? If you remember, back in the 1980's, the Audi 5000 also supposedly had a similar problem with out of control acceleration. Tests were done and they never, ever found a problem. But that didn't stop a whole lot of people from jumping on the bandwagon and saying they had a problem. Audi then stopped making the 5000's.

From all the news reports that I have read or seen, it appears that the majority of the drivers who supposedly experienced the problem were drivers 55 years old and older. Could they have mistakenly stepped on the gas pedal instead of the brakes? I suspect that is entirely possible. One of the more TV news worthy reports was about the man who was speeding down the highway at 94 mph and couldn't stop his car. He called 911. The 911 operator asked him if he tried to put the car in neutral. If you listen to the 911 tape, he answers no to that question. What? Your car is supposedly speeding down the highway and all you do is to step on the brakes? When the police caught up to him all of a sudden he was able to reduce his speed to 55 and he then turned the car off and coasted to a stop. A news report that I just heard today now questions the legitimacy of his claim. Nothing was found wrong with his Toyota and the authorities believe that he was just in a hurry and didn't want to get a speeding ticket. That sounds very believable to me.

Last week a 72 year old man was driving his Mercedes-Benz SUV when he mowed down 6 parishioners in a Brooklyn, New York church parking lot, killing a mother of 2 and injuring 5 others. The driver put the vehicle in reverse and then sped up when the accident occurred. Does this mean that there is a problem with MB SUV's. I think not. A few years ago right here where I live, an elderly driver drove his car into the brick wall of our local Rite-Aid store. The car did considerable damage to the wall including knocking it down and the nose of the car ended up inside the store. The driver said that he had his foot on the brakes and the car wouldn't stop. It was determined that he mistakenly stepped on the gas pedal instead of the brakes. Additionally, last week a 56 year old driver of a 2005 Toyota Prius crashed into a stone wall in Harrison, New York. She said that she couldn't stop the car after it accelerated. The 2005 Prius isn't even part of the recall. But she swears it happened. A Toyota engineer is scheduled to check out the car this week including reading the black box. Maybe that would give enough info to help determine what happened. Who knew that cars had black boxes? Not me.

In my opinion, I think a lot of the out of control acceleration incidents is the drivers fault. People do not like to admit that they made a mistake and desperately want and need a scapegoat. They need to blame something or someone else other then their own stupidity or mistake.

If all of the drivers involved in these supposedly out of control acceleration incidents just did these 2 simple, but definitely common sense procedures that take milliseconds. Then there wouldn't be a crash with the possibility of injuries and or death, and one could bring the car to a stop. If you have a car that is accelerating uncontrollably, immediately put the car in neutral and step on the brakes. How damn simple is that? Enough said!

Til next week.