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You know I've got this switch on my race car that if i stomp on the brakes hard it cuts the ignition power. It's made just for stuck WOT situations. http://www.colemanracing.com/store/shopexd.asp?id=6574
For what it's worth i never wanted a car with an air bag, nor traction control, drive by wire etc. Just give me 4 wheels and a motor. Wish they still made trucks like my old 65 f100. god i miss it.
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Was there a median he could have driven the car into and used the e-brake to spin it? A lexus probably wouldn't flip, and you would think traction control would intervene and turn the car off when it sense a spin. I'm with Dave here, there were so many options for the driver other than hang on and keep going.
44Dwarf wrote:Which would get Toyota sued - when grandma stomps on the brakes, the engine dies, then loses power steering and power brakes, and proceeds to get into the very accident she was trying to avoid.You know I've got this switch on my race car that if i stomp on the brakes hard it cuts the ignition power.
And about putting it into reverse - come on, you actually think a computer controlled transmission will allow that? Like I keep saying, until someone takes that exact model Lexus out and tries it, don't assume all four occupants are dumb. We don't know all the facts. For all we know, that same computer controlled tranny may not allow shifting into neutral. That shift lever doesn't shift - it "requests" the shift from the computer. If it deems that it won't harm things, it'll allow it.
kb58 wrote:Like I keep saying, until someone takes that exact model Lexus out and tries it, don't assume all four occupants are dumb. We don't know all the facts. For all we know, that same computer controlled tranny may not allow shifting into neutral. That shift lever doesn't shift - it "requests" the shift from the computer. If it deems that it won't harm things, it'll allow it.
One of my customers has an ES350 just like the one in the crash. No go on the test drive ( I really wanted to run it up the road and put it up in neutral just to see how hard it is), but she did let me look it over very well. I don't see how the floor mat could have jammed the gas pedal up that much, the damn thing is like 4 inches from the floor.
For what it's worth i never wanted a car with an air bag, nor traction control, drive by wire etc. Just give me 4 wheels and a motor. Wish they still made trucks like my old 65 f100
http://www.iihs.org/video.aspx/info/50thcrash
They dont make em like they used to...sorry i couldnt find one with half-ton ford trucks 
I went out tonight and showed my wife how to stop our runaway Lexus by holding the stop/start button down for 3 seconds. It worked like a champ.
3 seconds is not a very long time IF YOU KNOW THAT AT THE END OF THAT 3 SECONDS THE ENGINE WILL SHUT OFF.
If you don't know it will kill the engine and you are just trying everything in a panic it's too long to intuitively know it's going to work. Her first impression was that nothing was happening.
Interestingly enough my steering wheel didn't lock so I could still steer. Turning a key off locks the wheel. Also just touching the start button restarted the car whereas you normally have to have your foot on the brake.
In neutral or park my car would still rev to destruction. Someone had mentioned that DBW cars didn't rev beyond about 4k when not in a gear. That's not so on the Lexus.
I forgot to try hitting the brake while under WOT to see if that killed anything.
Vigo wrote:I think this was DEFINITELY driver error. Just like that kid who got shot and killed in the subway by 'operator error'... a taser and a pistol look about as similar as a brake pedal and a gas pedal, when you think about it.....
You're absolutely incorrect. The PROBLEM was that the throttle body of a three hundred horsepower car stuck open and the brakes did not stop it.
The stupid people thing is a sad thing for folks to claim here. This was a California Highway Patrol officer not some ignorant person who didn't know the first thing about cars.
I guess it's too easy for people to take part in "bar stool" racing here saying "well I would've done it this way". Well guess what, you weren't there so you don't know what you would've done. He may have reacted better than you would have.
Sorry for getting upset, but it is ridiculous to blame the driver for this. Especially to claim it was his fault.
This was a California Highway Patrol officer not some ignorant person who didn't know the first thing about GUNS
FIXED. Thought i might have gotten my states mixed up but google says i was correct. http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/06/BART.shooting/index.html
I admit it's an off-topic barb about people who are supposedly trained to handle difficult situations ending up killing other people... but off-topic and incorrect are not the same thing. It is a valid analogy.
And as has been said 15 times, if you cant figure out some way to get a car to stop accelerating in the time it takes to go from 70-120 in a loaded car while dragging the brakes...the person is too slow for a car thats too fast for him/her. That's a recipe for death no matter what's causing it to go WOT.
... california again, eh?From elsewhere: A source close to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said a Test driver for the dapartment made the following statement regarding Hemi Chargers after driving one on their pursuit course: "Our deputies will never see those cars. They are way too fast. Too many deputies will get killed."
Props to those here who are experimenting with Lexii to get first-hand data...
Vigo wrote:FIXED. Thought i might have gotten my states mixed up but google says i was correct. http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/06/BART.shooting/index.html
That is a tragic situation. It also has nothing to do with the topic at hand.
A 300 hp car will accelerate to speed very quickly. In rush hour traffic it would take 100% concentration to keep driving, not giving you a peaceful break to start playing with buttons. Granted shifting to neutral would have been a good choice, but it hasn't been determined if the computer would even allow this at WOT.
I give the guy props for keeping a bigger accident from happening.
Vigo wrote:For all we know this tropper DID try to shift it, but nobody pieced together the fact that the windshield wiper arm was torn off in his hand to the fact that he drives an antique crown vic (in all likelihood) for a living. Noone among the press would think to point that out.. There have been times when i was stopping hard in an auto and i jammed the imaginary clutch pedal to the floor. I have reached for shifters that werent there out of habit. Funny stuff happens. It never took one one thousand two one thousand three one thousand to figure out where they were, and i have never forgotten where the brake pedal was or where the steering wheel was, cuz they're always in the same place..
That is a very good point about the wiper control arm being broken off and in his hand. In a panic situation, your body will react for you. If it is used to reaching for a column mounted shifter, clutch pedal, or even a key to turn it off.. it will do that while the conscious part of your brain melts down and runs away screaming.
The Trooper was trying to something, he just did the wrong thing
