A good reason to make sure your floormats are..

[Greddypacked]

secured in the right position. It even has a recording of a cellphone call to 911 before they .... http://www.yahoo.com/s/1132614 Thats crazy this happened. Prayers to them and family.


I dont even have a floormat on my driverside. I really dont need one for I dont get my car dirty.

[ep9716]

Damn...I wanna hear the rest of the call.

[Honda_91EF]

Holy shit. That always happens to me. Or if I press my clutch all the way, it'll get stuck the ground and it won't come back unless you pull it back with your foot lol.

[xxbckiexx]

At what point did they realize that the accelerator was stuck.. did they not think about putting it in neutral.. ebrake..? i mean come on.. sad story but.. survival of the fittest.

[yungdz]

Holy shit. That always happens to me. Or if I press my clutch all the way, it'll get stuck the ground and it won't come back unless you pull it back with your foot lol.


lol sounds like you need a new slave cylinder


At what point did they realize that the accelerator was stuck.. did they not think about putting it in neutral.. ebrake..? i mean come on.. sad story but.. survival of the fittest.


Exactly what I was thinking. Or reaching down and pulling the mat back. If the guy had time to call 911 shouldn't the driver have had time to reach down?

[Honda_91EF]

lol sounds like you need a new slave cylinder




Exactly what I was thinking. Or reaching down and pulling the mat back. If the guy had time to call 911 shouldn't the driver have had time to reach down?


Lol eh.

And I was thinking that too, put it in n, r, pull the ebrake, turn it off, etc. I could of stopped it, lol.

[DieselNuts]

At what point did they realize that the accelerator was stuck.. did they not think about putting it in neutral.. ebrake..? i mean come on.. sad story but.. survival of the fittest.

I agree

[amandDA]

damn but why did he not move it?:thinking:

[FTMFL]

Floormats are for pussies.

[02SloWrx]

DAMN.

like already stated, there was so many ways they could have stoped the car, or at last slowed it down.

if it was stick, even bettter.

if it was auto, put it N, turn of the car, pull e-brake. hmm

[StreetHazard]

DAMN.

like already stated, there was so many ways they could have stoped the car, or at last slowed it down.

if it was stick, even bettter.

if it was auto, put it N, turn of the car, pull e-brake. hmm


survival of the fittest, unfortunately this family didnt make the cut

[Greddypacked]

He probably paniced. When people panic they dont think straight and are accidental. Prayers to them, sad story.

[SloWRX]

wtf! sad story and all but ive had this shit happen to me numerous of times when i had those heavy ass all season floor mats and all i had to do was reach down and pull it or pull it back with my foot... takes a WHOLE second!

[Kasper]

this is one of those occasions that we all have time to sit back and pick appart the story. but at the time, he was probably freaking out bad that his car was doing this. now on one side he is a cop, trained to think under extreme pressure, but on the other hand that was his entire family in his hands when it all broke loose. he just wasnt thinking. and my thaughts go out to him and his family cause that is just a freak accident.

[02SloWrx]

man these people were on the phone with police for a minute. You telling me they didnt have time to think what to do? wtf, im sorry, but those people are some dumb fucks. WTF is police gona do even that they called, tell them, hey stay put, we gona send SWAT team. WTF this story just doesnt add up.

[Honda_91EF]

man these people were on the phone with police for a minute. You telling me they didnt have time to think what to do? wtf, im sorry, but those people are some dumb fucks. WTF is police gona do even that they called, tell them, hey stay put, we gona send SWAT team. WTF this story just doesnt add up.

It really doesn't add up.

[speedminded]

Holy shit. That always happens to me. Or if I press my clutch all the way, it'll get stuck the ground and it won't come back unless you pull it back with your foot lol.

lol sounds like you need a new slave cylinder




Exactly what I was thinking. Or reaching down and pulling the mat back. If the guy had time to call 911 shouldn't the driver have had time to reach down?Negative. Needs a master cylinder.

[speedminded]

Absolutely fucking retarded. There was more than enough time to turn the ignition off. The caller stated the car had no brakes either. I've driven enough Corrola's to know they do not have the power to overcome the braking. Obviously the car was an auto too, I hope anyways, so it will easily go into neutral. State officer or not the driver was an idiot.

[Doppelgänger]

Yeah,I saw that on the news the other day. Friggin' Darwin Award winner right there. :facepalm:

I'm not surprised the brakes weren't working...the pad compounds they use on cars like that are not worth a sh!t at 100mph...ride them for a few seconds at those speed and they'll be cooked. It's one thing to stop a car in an emergency situation from 80...but those brakes aren't meant to work against a engine running WOT at 100+mph. The car was a Lexus ES350...and those had decent power/acceleration so if the car was WOT, it wouldn't have taken much time to get to 120mph. ALSO- Remember that power brakes work off vacuum in the intake manifold. I'm sure many of you with boost/vac gauges will know, the as you increase throttle, vacuum is reduced. This reduction of vacuum i nthe brake cylinder assembly pretty much nulls the point of power brakes and makes pushing the pedal VERY difficult as anyone who has coasted a car will know after hitting the brakes a couple of times.

Also.. here is an interesting detail though. The car, being a new Lexus, uses a proximity key. Meaning, there is no actualy physical key to turn off. It's a card that the car detects it's withing xxft of the car and allows the car to be turned on with a push button starter once you open the door and get in.


With the revolutionary SmartAccess feature, you can lock and unlock your doors, open the trunk and start the ignition-all without having to take your keys out of your pocket or purse. As soon as the sensors detect the presence of your SmartAccess key, the door unlocks when you touch the handle.

So with that said, since it's a push button start/stop, it probably doesn't allow the car to be turned off unless the gear selector is in the "P" position..making it impossible to turn the car off while in Drive. Now, I don't know if it's possible or how easy it is to put the car in Park when motion. But still, they could have put the car in neutral to stop accelerating/scrub speed. Another possiblity is those stupid throttle-by-wire systems everyone uses these days. It might not have been a stuck floor mat at all, but rather a faulty computer/sensort that opened the throttle up. I've read a couple reports of Toyotas accelerating to high speeds unexpectedly..and not because the floor mat was stuck under the pedal.

http://world-news.newsvine.com/_news/2009/09/10/3247549-floor-mats-the-focus-of-deadly-lexus-crash#comments

Although the NHTSA says they didn't find anything, that many complaints dont' come out of nowhere..
http://wot.motortrend.com/6293208/recalls/off-the-hook-nhtsa-closes-probe-on-toyota-tacomas-sudden-acceleration-issue/index.html

More people speaking about the problem can be found in the comments here..
http://www.topix.com/forum/autos/audi/TIUVQT6QDCKMIOCDK



Ahhh, the joys of over-complicated technology because people are too lazy to start a car by simply turning a key.

[speedminded]

Yeah,I saw that on the news the other day. Friggin' Darwin Award winner right there. :facepalm:

I'm not surprised the brakes weren't working...the pad compounds they use on cars like that are not worth a sh!t at 100mph...ride them for a few seconds at those speed and they'll be cooked. It's one thing to stop a car in an emergency situation from 80...but those brakes aren't meant to work against a engine running WOT at 100+mph. The car was a Lexus ES350...and those had decent power/acceleration so if the car was WOT, it wouldn't have taken much time to get to 120mph.

Also.. here is an interesting detail though. The car, being a new Lexus, uses a proximity key. Meaning, there is no actualy physical key to turn off. It's a card that the car detects it's withing xxft of the car and allows the car to be turned on with a push button starter once you open the door and get in.



So with that said, since it's a push button start/stop, it probably doesn't allow the car to be turned off unless the gear selector is in the "P" position..making it impossible to turn the car off while in Drive. Now, I don't know if it's possible or how easy it is to put the car in Park when motion. But still, they could have put the car in neutral to stop accelerating/scrub speed...

Ahhh, the joys of over-complicated technology because people are too lazy to start a car by simply turning a key.ah good points, i dunno why i thought it was a corrolla...other than it being 4am after two long islands lol!

[Elbow]

I hate floor mats, I never have them in.

[Doppelgänger]

Yeah,I saw that on the news the other day. Friggin' Darwin Award winner right there. :facepalm:

I'm not surprised the brakes weren't working...the pad compounds they use on cars like that are not worth a sh!t at 100mph...ride them for a few seconds at those speed and they'll be cooked. It's one thing to stop a car in an emergency situation from 80...but those brakes aren't meant to work against a engine running WOT at 100+mph. The car was a Lexus ES350...and those had decent power/acceleration so if the car was WOT, it wouldn't have taken much time to get to 120mph. ALSO- Remember that power brakes work off vacuum in the intake manifold. I'm sure many of you with boost/vac gauges will know, the as you increase throttle, vacuum is reduced. This reduction of vacuum i nthe brake cylinder assembly pretty much nulls the point of power brakes and makes pushing the pedal VERY difficult as anyone who has coasted a car will know after hitting the brakes a couple of times.

Also.. here is an interesting detail though. The car, being a new Lexus, uses a proximity key. Meaning, there is no actualy physical key to turn off. It's a card that the car detects it's withing xxft of the car and allows the car to be turned on with a push button starter once you open the door and get in.



So with that said, since it's a push button start/stop, it probably doesn't allow the car to be turned off unless the gear selector is in the "P" position..making it impossible to turn the car off while in Drive. Now, I don't know if it's possible or how easy it is to put the car in Park when motion. But still, they could have put the car in neutral to stop accelerating/scrub speed. Another possiblity is those stupid throttle-by-wire systems everyone uses these days. It might not have been a stuck floor mat at all, but rather a faulty computer/sensort that opened the throttle up. I've read a couple reports of Toyotas accelerating to high speeds unexpectedly..and not because the floor mat was stuck under the pedal.

http://world-news.newsvine.com/_news/2009/09/10/3247549-floor-mats-the-focus-of-deadly-lexus-crash#comments

Although the NHTSA says they didn't find anything, that many complaints dont' come out of nowhere..
http://wot.motortrend.com/6293208/recalls/off-the-hook-nhtsa-closes-probe-on-toyota-tacomas-sudden-acceleration-issue/index.html

More people speaking about the problem can be found in the comments here..
http://www.topix.com/forum/autos/audi/TIUVQT6QDCKMIOCDK



Ahhh, the joys of over-complicated technology because people are too lazy to start a car by simply turning a key.

Putting this on the top-ish of page two because no one reads the bottom of page one lol

[SPOOLIN]

neutral...the motor can just hit the rev limiter for 10 minutes for all i care. Im not dieing over a stupid car problem like that.

[xxbckiexx]

this is one of those occasions that we all have time to sit back and pick appart the story. but at the time, he was probably freaking out bad that his car was doing this. now on one side he is a cop, trained to think under extreme pressure, but on the other hand that was his entire family in his hands when it all broke loose. he just wasnt thinking. and my thaughts go out to him and his family cause that is just a freak accident.

if you can't figure out that you need to move the mat and put it in neutral in this type of situation instantly, you shouldn't be driving. simple as that.

[speedminded]

if you can't figure out that you need to move the mat and put it in neutral in this type of situation instantly, you shouldn't be driving. simple as that.Exactly, you should know when you can't feel the accelerator or something is wierd about it.

I'm curious to why they think it's the floor mat anyways. I guess that's the most logical diagnosis but have you seen the car?!!! During an accident of that magnitude is it not possible for the floor mat to come unhooked and slid up onto the accelerator pedal?

[SPOOLIN]

i bet the servo stuck wide open and they don't want people freaking out about their throttles getting stuck open so they blamed it on something stupid as hell.