Accidents Caused by Sudden Acceleration

[RockyMtnHigh]

Don't know if anyone has seen this, thought I should put it out there though.

There's a video in the second link.

http://abcnews.go.com/m/screen?id=9007163&pid=4380645

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/RunawayToyotas/sudden-acceleration-toyota-cars-owners-rebel-accidents/story?id=8980479

Just want to add, drop it in neutral if this happens to you!!!

[Andrew]

Engine no likey neutral there....but better than crashing.

Better yet, if you are on a straight road with not a lot of traffic? Turn off the engine, then brake - you'll have to push hard and your steering won't be so wonderful but hey.

[Brody]

Wow...

On the deceleration side of this, did anyone read about Big Daddy Don Garlits detaching a retina due to the 4g stopping of a Top Fuel dragster?

This dude is still racing at something like 76 years old. Well, it turned out he was testing out his new rail and didn't like how the parachutes weren't stopping it fast enough. He had his boys in the pits address the issue. He took it for another run and it stopped so fast it detached a retina! Yahoo!

"Big Daddy" retired in 1992 due to separated retina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retina), a product of the 4g deceleration produced by a Top Fuel Dragster (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Fuel)'s braking parachutes.[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Garlits#cite_note-2) Garlits resumed his career briefly in 1998, and again in 2003. His last qualifying race was in May 2003 at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 23rd annual Summit Racing Equipment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summit_Racing_Equipment) NHRA Southern Nationals presented by Pontiac in Atlanta, Georgia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta,_Georgia). At the age of 71 years, 5 months and 19 days he qualified 16th setting a personal best speed in the quarter mile with a time of 4.788 seconds at 319.98 miles per hour. Garlits had reached 323.04 earlier in the year at the 2003 Gatornationals. Mr. Garlits lost in first round competition with his Summit Racing-Mono Winged Dragster with a 0.064 reaction time, a personal best 4.737 elapsed time, at 307.44 miles per hour to Brandon Bernstein's (son of racing legend Kenny Berstein,) Budweiser/Lucas Oil Dragster 0.079 reaction time, a 4.615 elapsed time, at 321.42 miles per hour. The difference at the finish line was 107 thousandths of a second.

[RockyMtnHigh]

Atta boy Brody, I knew I could count on you for some forum/topic ADD. :lol:

[Brody]

Atta boy Brody, I knew I could count on you for some forum/topic ADD. :lol:

:D:D

[Speedwagon]

Um....


Right before the crash, Saylor's brother-in-law called 911 from the backseat of the vehicle and said urgently, "Our accelerator is stuck. We're in trouble…There's no brakes."

Gee, maybe if you take your foot off the skinny pedal, and put it on the wide pedal, you'd have brakes! I'd like to know how these people can actually drive a car. Even if there is a problem with the car suddenly accelerating on its own, one can always push the brakes down to fight it. And there's no way a Camry is going to do 100mph with me mashing the brakes down.

Ok, now I know they are hitting the wrong pedal. I just watched a youtube video of some local Prius owner in 2006, that claims the car would not slow down at all when they pushed on both the normal and emergency brake. My Subaru slows down when I jam on the brakes & gas at the same time, no way a Prius wouldn't slow down.

[Mporter]

Just want to add, drop it in neutral if this happens to you!!!

Ya, no ****....I can't believe people are that stupid, sure you may blow your engine, but its better than killing yourself.

[Andrew]

Um....



Gee, maybe if you take your foot off the skinny pedal, and put it on the wide pedal, you'd have brakes! I'd like to know how these people can actually drive a car. Even if there is a problem with the car suddenly accelerating on its own, one can always push the brakes down to fight it. And there's no way a Camry is going to do 100mph with me mashing the brakes down.

Ok, now I know they are hitting the wrong pedal. I just watched a youtube video of some local Prius owner in 2006, that claims the car would not slow down at all when they pushed on both the normal and emergency brake. My Subaru slows down when I jam on the brakes & gas at the same time, no way a Prius wouldn't slow down.

Actually one report said they were pushing on the brakes hard and it did nothing.

Something was screwed.

[Speedwagon]

Actually one report said they were pushing on the brakes hard and it did nothing.

Something was screwed.

But brakes are mechanical. Even if there are electrical gremlins causing a drive-by-wire throttle to engage, there is nothing that can make the brakes fail at the same time, that would be related. And the fact that in all of these cases(from what I can tell), nobody bothered to turn the car off, tells me they just aren't smart enough to drive well.

If my car is going faster, and I'm slamming on what I believe to be the brakes, I'm turning the damn thing off! I'm not going to wait until I hit something.

[Funrover]

The stories are sad, but I feel there is more that could have been done. Turn of the Key, brakes neutral, EMERGENCY Brake etc... I hope to never be in this situation. But it does seem odd to me

[RockyMtnHigh]

Sorry guys the intent wasn't to start a debate on what should and shouldn't be done, stupid people or not, it was just a heads up in case someone driving one of these vehicles runs into the problem.

I for one, would think if the Highway Patrolman was collected enough to make a call to 911 during this he should have been collected enough to slap the shifter into neutral and shut the car down. Sadly, that wasn't the case, for whatever reason that maybe.

Just a simple heads up, if you know about the problem before hand, it maybe a little easier to react to it, if it happens to you.:thunb:

[Hypoid]

Sorry guys the intent wasn't to start a debate on what should and shouldn't be done
Much of the fine art of defensive driving is soiling your drawers in a controlled and predictable manner. People don't train for the worst and succumb to the circumstance. I have to wonder how many of these posters would survive a stuck accelerator, regardless of brand.

BTW, X3 on shifting into neutral and finding a safe place to stop.