Last week a 61-year old named James Sikes, who filed for bankruptcy several years ago, found himself unable to stop his 2008 Toyota Prius as it raced along the highway at over 90 miles per hour. The 911 dispatcher “repeatedly pleaded with Sikes to shift into neutral. He simply refused…..”
Fun fact: the gear shift in the 2008 Toyota Prius is conveniently mounted so that one can shift while keeping both hands on the wheel.
“I thought about” shifting into neutral, Sikes said at a televised press conference the day after the incident. But “I had never played with this kind of a transmission, especially when you’re driving, and I was actually afraid to do that.”
Might there be more going on behind the scenes of this whole “Toyota scandal” than the average MSM-watcher is aware of? Theodore H. Frank, in the Washington Examiner:
We went through this a generation ago with the Audi 5000 and other autos accused of sudden acceleration, and, again, mysterious unknowable car components were supposedly at fault….Back then, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)…found that sudden acceleration was several times more likely among elderly drivers than young drivers…”
We’re seeing the same pattern again today. Initial reports of a problem, followed by dozens of new reports “coming to light” as people seek to blame their earlier accidents on sudden acceleration.
(…)
In the 24 (Toyota) cases where driver age was reported or readily inferred, the drivers included those of the ages 60, 61, 63, 66, 68, 71, 72, 72, 77, 79, 83, 85, 89—and I’m leaving out the son whose age wasn’t identified, but whose 94-year-old father died as a passenger.
Hmmm. Clearly, it’s time for a class-action age-discrimination lawsuit against foreign car manufacturer Toyota. Their customers’ lives, after all, “can suddenly become hell-on-wheels.”
batb, Been awhile since I’ve driven the 401, but don’t you normally have a left shoulder for emergency use on highways of that size?
babt, you make sure you’re driving a BIG Toyota. 🙂 That way when you put on your turn signal and start changing lanes, people get out of your way.
BTW I’m no expert. I’ve just driven a ton of crappy old cars over the years and not died from it. So much so that now I have nice cars, I just bought a crappy old one to drive to car shows. 1964 Buick, big car, big engine, drum brakes.
Its nice, but driving it around really makes you appreciate 40+ years of automotive progress, let me tell you.
My 2 cents. I’ve driven cars with manual transmissions exclusively since 1985.
I always shift into neutral while at a light if have to wait for more than about 3 seconds. The throw-out bearing in successive transmissions has thanked me for it.
With a front wheel drive manual tranny, simply backing of the throttle while making a turn in an intersection in the snow has a similar effect to hitting the throttle. The front end pushes as you lose traction through engine breaking and you have a good shot at whacking a curb or another car. I usually just push in the clutch and let it roll through the corner – works very well.
If a throttle sticks for ANY reason, I would sooner just shut the key off (first click only – don’t want to lock the steering column) and do my best to get out of the way. Pushing in the clutch or selecting neutral will work and yes, most newer vehicles have rev limiters, however engines do not appreciate freewheeling at high RPM for more than a second or two. If it turns out to be something as simply as a floor mat, you can be looking at some expensive repairs for a dumb reason.
As to torque steer, yes, it can be an issue. My Jetta with the 1.8T nearly caught me out a few years ago when I stomped on it in first gear on a road with a serious crown. My current ride, an ’09 Subaru WRX STI took that to a whole new level last spring on a cottage road that was paved but still partially covered with sand from the winter. I had disabled the traction control and dialed up the engine performance mode to max (305 hp) and then tried to rally out of a corner in second gear. Bad move – came realllly close to ending up in the trees. Learned a big lesson there.
There are lots of ways to drive and lots of ways to deal with emergency situations. That state trooper was, in my opinion – and sadly – an idiot. He spent over 50 seconds on the phone with 911 and they repeatedly told him what to do long before the crash. He killed himself and his whole family because he was stupid.
Ok, that was more like 3 cents.
L. Stricker, as often as not, you’ve got a cement wall next to you — at least, if you’re approaching a city or large community. If my accelerator gets stuck, I’ll hope it’s on the part of the 401 with a large, grassy verge between my section of the highway and the cars going in the opposite direction!
LOL, Phantom! I don’t have a BIG Toyota, so I guess I’ll just pray!
K.Stricker, sorry, NOT L. Stricker … 😉
Anyone who does not know how to operated their vehicle … and this includes being aware of and capable of performing emergency measures and maneuvers …. has NO effin business driving.
OMMAG,
Maybe, but … not all people have the advantage of a mis-spent youth. batb has asked a question … I don’t think she is alone in her desire to know. I don’t know how many licensed drivers we have in Canada, but I suspect the majority of them would do nothing in a situation that required action.
batb – There is always something that you can do that is better than doing nothing. Get on the horn, turn on your hazards, do a little dance in your lane, etc. … people will get out of your way. Praying is not an option.
Tis whole deal is so full of issues. YouTube alone has dozens of videos of people who mistook the gas for the brake and drove into the 7-UP cooler at the 7/11.
Worse though, is the distinct lack of interest in the technical side of this story within the media. Why are there so few journalists outside of the automotive press who have taken the time to grasp that you literally can’t buy a car that will accelerate from 0-70 mph in less distance than it will decelerate from 70-0? When you absorb this fact, you begin to understand that there are no runaway Toyota’s.
“I’ve missed a few shifts, and I usually lift off the throttle, when it happens. It’s those sustained runaways that can lead to an explosion. That’s why race cars have steel “scatter shields” over their clutches.”
The ONLY cars that have scattershields are dragsters. Most domestic cars can’t rev over 8000 rpms and even middle of the road race cars rev easily to 12 or 13000rpm without incident.
Would the motor blow up. Perhaps. Will a crash kill you. Probably. Your choice.
With modern electronically controlled automatic transmissions, the gear shift selector just transmits your “suggestion” to the computer that actually controls the transmission. You can drive at 90 MPH and select first gear. No excitement will ensue until you drop the speed down to where the computer allows the downshift(s).
I’d like to see a shade tree mechanic with no dog in this fight take a Prius out on the freeway, floorboard it with a fully charged battery, then select neutral and see if the shift takes place.
Until I have a firm report on this type of test, I’ll reserve judgment on the driver.
LR, from Drudge this morning:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/14/AR2010031402019.html
Headline: “Tests fail to duplicate acceleration problem in Prius”
“On our test drive, the field technician tried to duplicate the same experience that Mr. Sikes experienced,” the staffer wrote in the memo. “After about two hours of driving he was unsuccessful. Every time the technician placed the gas pedal to the floor and the brake pedal to the floor the engine shut off and the car immediately started to slow down.”
The failure to duplicate the incident is not unusual; Toyota has said it has had difficulty duplicating other reported incidents of runaway vehicles. Sikes’s attorney, John Gomez, told the Associated Press that the results do not cast doubt on his client’s story and that Sikes is not trying to profit from the incident.
Issa spokesman Kurt Bardella disagreed, saying Sunday that “these findings certainly raise new questions surrounding the veracity of the sequence of events that has been reported by Mr. Sikes.”
Sikes reported last week that he was unable to get his Prius to stop as it reached speeds of 94 mph even as he pressed both feet on the brake. That part of Sikes’s story was verified by the technicians.
“The investigators removed the front tires from the car and a handful of brake dust fell out,” the memo reads. “Visually checking the brake pads and rotor it was clearly visible that there was nothing left.”
Yeah, verifying that either he used up all the brakes trying to stop, or verifying he had never had the brakes serviced and the pads were gone, and there was a a ton of brake dust because he’s a slob who never washed his car.
Interesting that these “incidents” are extremely difficult to replicate in most cases.
∞, can I get on the horn, turn on my hazards, do a little dance in my lane, AND pray?!
Let me see. A choice between the possibility of a blown motor or being smeared all over an embankment when you lose control of your runaway car? I’d take the blown engine.
I’m shocked that no one has mentioned this, but the oped by Theodore Frank is in the Washington EXAMINER, not the Washington Post
Thanks for catching that, Douglas. It’s corrected now.
batb,
A preacher dies, and when he gets to Heaven, he sees a Toyota executive who has more crowns. He says to an angel, “I don’t get it. I devoted my whole life to my congregation.”
The angel says, “We reward results. Did your congregation always pay attention when you gave a sermon?”
The preacher says, “Once in a while someone fell asleep.”
The angel says, “Right. And when people drove in a Toyota, they not only stayed awake, but they usually prayed!”
I think if I owned a Toyota I’d be getting a kill switch installed .. just in case
My Toyota Sequoia is a great SUV, and I’ve had zero issues, nor do I fear it.
However, if one looks at the history of recalls, most car companies far exceed Toyota, this is nothing but an attack by unions trying to bring a non-union carmaker to it’s knees.