I apologize if this story was posted before, but I just saw the back story for the toyota floor mat recall and I'm kind of shocked by it.

Here's the link:
http://www.sandiego6.com/mostpopular...uxTtxrK4Q.cspx

Doesn't it seem like, with enough time for a passenger to make a 911 call, the police officer involved could have turned the car off or shifted into neutral or something?! I feel bad for them but this seems easily avoided to me. What the hell, four people died!

 

wrong section of the forum

 

oh yeah i forgot everything posted here is on topic

 

Well, everything posted here is about the RX-8, so yes, you are in the wrong forum.

For a MT driver shifting into neutral or just pushing in the clutch would be an automatic reaction, but the average AT driver would just try to step on the brakes and not think to put it in neutral.

 

When I saw the news that day, thats EXACTLY what I was thinking

I mean yea sure The car going 110 mph is scary, but I guess he doesnt know that that Brake system will work EVEN when the car is turned off.

 

Well actually...brakes...you do loose vacuum pressure, but anyways, putting it in nuetral should have been the reaction.

 

sorry, my bad, you're right this should have gone in the lounge section.

i just read that it was a push-type ignition, no key, so that probably contributed to his confusion. the 911 call was 50 seconds, so it had been stuck for some time, still seems like most people could figure something out. the 911 call is disturbing.

 

I guess this is as good a place as any to ask this: Does anyone have problems with the driver side floor mat moving around while you're driving? It seems like I'm always adjusting it whenever I get into my car.

But on this topic, it is quite a tragedy, and goes to show how little design flaws in a product can have a pretty big impact on people's lives.

 

Mine never moves, but I tend to always keep my left foot on the clutch even while cruising, I hardly ever use the dead pedal. There's a big worn spot on the floor mat where my left heel sits.

 

If you look at your mat there is a little hole where you can anchor the mat to a rod that is under the drivers seat, doesn't move at all for me..

 

Should be General Automotive actually...

But anyways, that is tragic. Are there any benefits to a pedal set up like that versus a set up like ours? It doesn't seem like we could ever reasonably have that issue.

 

wow man that's really terrible...
Tragic story.

 

Well, you will lose some pressure but, it will still lock like it should.

Manual transmission taught me a lot of things ... at least I can down shift it to slow it down then put it to N so it would stop ... better to trash the transmission than die.

The driver would've shift to N too ... panic got his judgment and tragedy happen

 

/\ Yeah. I didn't understand why he didn't go in Neutral. But I guess when you have your whole family on board and you are panicking, there's not much that you can think about...

 

There is no floor mat in the universe that is so strong that I cannot yank the accelerator pedal back up using my feet.

 

man that sucks 4 people from the same family dies my heart goes out to the surviving family ... i do however think it was avoidable ...

 

he had the time to call 911. but no time to think other stuff?

I mean, yeah when there is an emergency call 911, but seriously what kind of help was he expecting from 911 calls? a chopper come to pick everyone up ?

*Sigh*

RIP

 

Lol?

Makes you wonder why the guy even had the accelerator all the way open in the first place, followed by how the hell can you not know how to stop a vehicle with the accelerator stuck open? Takes a second to kill the engine and yank the e-brake.

Natural selection at work.

 

That sounds a bit harsh. I'm not very well versed in evolutionary theory, but I'd imagine natural selection has nothing to do with Toyota's floor mat decisions. And unless you're trying to get fat drift points, I don't know if yanking (or in this case, stomping) the e-brake at 120+ mph would be the best idea.

And about my floor mat, I always saw the hole to anchor it down when I'm cleaning it, but I don't know if I have the rod that holds it in place.

 

tragic indeed...but this definitely could have been avoided. This is part of the reason why I dont like my girlfriend and my mother driving late at night (not that it makes a difference) but they would panic and not know what to do too. Cars are dangerous machines and everyone should have a thorough understanding of how they work.

 

First and foremost, my thoughts goes to the victims and the victims' family.

I do agree with rodjonathan that this was avoidable, because I have the same issue with my 04 Lancer.
The floormat is a moveable object, regardless the design of its anchors, it gets moved around by the people at the car wash, when you get in and out of the car, putting/lifting objects off it, etc...

I wouldn't fault any car makers for this kind of issues, I do however applaud Toyota for taking actions to prevent this happening again.

Hopefully this won't encourage any carmakers to stop the practice of putting floor mat, and instead making them optional to avoid potential lawsuits.

 

They played the audio of the 911 call on the radio here in Chicago last week...chilling stuff

 

Sorry, didn't mean yank, but rather pull & engage, it'll definately bring you to a stop within a relatively short distance, especially considering they apparently had enough time to travel at 120mph for long enough to place a call.. that would have been more than enough to stop the car with the ebrake engaged..


Still though, sucks it happened, however it could have easily been avoided.

 

lack of clear thinking caused this problem...sucks

 

I agree, however I have heard that shifting into reverse doesn't work anymore in order to stop the car. It programed to go into neutral.

So who cares... car revs and maybe blows up.

The real problem is driver education in the schools suck.