Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
1. He could have reached down and pulled the floormat out from under the accelerator pedal.
2. He could have shifted to neutral.
3. He could have pushed the power button for five seconds to shut the engine off.
4. He could have sideswiped the guardrail or wall to slow the car down.
Those are just a few solutions I could think of. But I guess that he thought that calling 911 and praying would work better.
^^^^This. Doing any of these would have most likely have saved their lives. It has even been proven that applying the brakes while engine at full throttle will stop the car.
another reason I would only purchase cars with mechanical gears, so I can manually shift in neuter - none of the electronic control variable gear crap.
Same for electrical cars, I don't trust the electronics since they can fail plus can be easily hacked/corrupted.
<>I am sure many have seen this. I have known about this before. But I was wondering what if he had turned off the engine, taken they key out, put it in neutral if that would have helped?
Tragically, possibly not, since the e-stop is a long push of the start button. There is no key for that model. Perhaps applying the manual brake would have worked if there had been an algorithm to detect that as a error. What might have helped, as it turns out, would have been to pull the floor mat out from the position overlapping the accelerator.
Here is a summary of the sad tale from wiki:
"On August 28, 2009, a two-car collision killed four people riding in
a Lexus dealer-provided loaner ES 350 in San Diego, California;
the accident was caused by the Lexus' incorrectly having been fitted
with all-weather rubber floor mats meant for the RX 400h SUV,
and the fact that these mats were not secured by either of the two retaining clips.
Additionally, the brake hardware showed signs of heavy braking
consistent with a stuck accelerator pedal. The investigators' report stated
that the accelerator pedal's hinge did not allow relieving of obstructions,
and the dashboard lacked directions for the
three-second emergency press of the push button keyless ignition.
NHTSA investigators also recovered the accident vehicle's
accelerator pedal, which was still "bonded" to the SUV floor mat."
Bingo !
Post number 13.
Some of todays cars have all electric everything. Nothing mechanical. So "pulling/pushing" the electric emergency brake accomplishes nothing.
Yes but it could be just a SMOP to have the engine go to idle when that signal is present and throttle is high.
"Small Matter Of Programming"
I know a few years has passed since this incident but I'm not sure that my past three cars including my current car could be shifted to neutral while driving- they don't have mechanical gearshifts, and the gear shift software prevents me from making certain shifts at different times (i.e. i can't put it in reverse while moving, even at 1/10th of a mph).
Also, I wouldn't know that holding down the "stop" button for 5+ seconds turns off the car; I've specifically tried hitting the stop button while driving and it just gives me an error message on the dash (though I've never tried holding it down). Also, most new cars don't have keys that you can pull out of the ignition. It's been a while since I've owned one that has, and these aren't $100k cars.
I would apply the e-brake, but as Mitch Hedburg so correctly pointed out- it's not an "emergency brake", it's an "emergency make-the-car-smell-funny lever".
I'm not aware of any vehicle that won't go into neutral at speed - -even the electronic ones that I've driven.
That's generally the best "first" option in a stuck accelerator situation, and should be a no-brainer.
As for holding the button for 5 seconds, that isn't an all-car thing. Some are hold it down, one of ours was press it 3 times in rapid succession, and a few would not power off at speed. Since there is no standard, it makes it difficult to know, even if you read the manual a few years back when you got the car.
I believe due to this type of accident, many manufacturers (perhaps all that didn't already do this) are implementing an emergency off for the push buttons (holding, rapid succession, etc.) and have a brake override that ignores the throttle if the brakes are pressed hard enough, even if the the throttle is stuck.
If there really are no brakes, downshifting will likely slow you down quicker than just going to neutral. Most (but not all) modern automatics will not let you make a shift that will rev to high and cause engine damage, but you should still be able to go down below whatever gear it is in at the time and keep going lower and lower as you scrub speed. In a manual, this is easier to just downshift and toast the motor, but be prepared for the very quick lockup and loss of control that will happen if the engine siezes.
another reason I would only purchase cars with mechanical gears, so I can manually shift in neuter - none of the electronic control variable gear crap.
Same for electrical cars, I don't trust the electronics since they can fail plus can be easily hacked/corrupted.
But the question of debugging systems does arise for the highly electronic vehicles today. Theoretically as systems become more complex it is impossible to debug the software.
Quote from one of the early programming gods:
"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place.
Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition,
not smart enough to debug it."
There was a long thread on this back when it happened. Someone explained why the brakes failed to stop them. Search for it.
If the car is already moving along at a good clip I don't see how you are going to stop this with brakes unless you have some really good brakes as in brakes typically found in race cars. This car is going to have a lot of horsepower, when you're braking it's going to be downshifting putting a lot more power to the wheels. If you don't get it stopped quickly the brakes will heat up in perhaps 15 to 30 seconds, they are all but useless at that point.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.