Surviving unintended acceleration is easy
Neutral, neutral, neutralKudos to Edmunds for putting out a number of stories focused on the real unintended acceleration story, survival.
Yes, I know, many of these unintended acceleration stories are probably nonsense, such as the latest runaway Prius story, and that might also be a piece of the 'real story'. Likewise, the chances of experiencing unintended acceleration are exceptionally slim.
Ultimately, despite what Congressional grand-standers, ambulance chasing attorneys and a drama-thirsty media would have you believe, most instances of unintended acceleration are easy to survive. According to Edmunds, shifting your car into neutral instantly ends unintended acceleration. Nevertheless, Edmunds was still was able to stop a V-6 Camry with a wide open throttle by keeping strong and constant pressure on the brakes, even without power brakes.
Essentially, almost all sudden acceleration problems are survivable, if you are an informed driver.
Speaking of which, anyone want to start a class action lawsuit against the DMV for failing to properly educate today's motorists?
Labels: recalls, toyota, toyota prius
posted by Dahcredyns at
9:22 AM
9 Comments:
Actually, these posts on how to stop accelerating car sicken me inasmuch as fake runaway stories. Of course, it is important to remember that you can shift into neutral and switch off the engine. However, it will work ONLY IF YOU CAR IS WORKING PROPERLY! And you have enough time. If there were a transmission control malfunction and break malfunction, it would be impossible. Shame on fakers on both sides.
LB-
So, you're talking about a completely unresponsive car to anything?
That's not what most people that have experienced unintended acceleration have described. On the other hand, a few reports describe how drivers controlled their acceleration with their brakes, shifting into neutral or shutting the car off and/or some combination of the above.
You're talking about something that is extremely rare, if it has ever even occurred.
In at least 99 percent of UA events, i'd bet shifting into neutral stops the acceleration.
So that means that chances of dying in such a car are almost non-existent if you shift into neutral.
30 - 40,000 people, on the other hand, are going to die in auto accidents this year, at least 1/4 of them will die because of faulty and/or cheap designs, possibly many more.
unintended acceleration, over the last few years, has possibly killed several hundred, and that's an exaggerated estimate based on the current numbers. and, again, in most of those cases, shifting into neutral and riding the brakes almost certainly would have saved a good chunk of those lives.
LB, you sound stupid. Your post makes it sound like everything on the car stops working at the same time.
The acceleration is not related to the parts of the car controlling the brakes or transmission control. You are talking about all 3 of these failing at the same time.
Switching the car to neutral will work in almost every case. However, as most people will never use neutral for anything, the probably dont realize how simple it is to stop the car.
Dahc,
You don't know. You are only assuming.
Rick, did you observe that almost every case? Can you really PROVE that? I guess not. Not very smart, ehhh?
I'm not assuming as much as you, LB.
I did quite a lot of research on this issue before taking a strong stand, and the evidence available fully supports my assumption.
Certainly, the currently available data might not yet provide the full story, but its pretty conclusive.
In a court of law, a preponderance of evidence is the requirement in a civil cases. The preponderance of evidence demonstrates that SA is very real and probably caused by a number of different factors, including some unknowns, however, it is extremely rare. Moreover, in most cases, switching into neutral will counter SA.
Might there be extremely rare cases where the car is completely unresponsive? It's possible, but without doubt, very rare.
O really, court of law! Such a nice scientific evidence. Unless it is absolutely proven, I do not want any presumptuous people showing me how to stop a perfectly working car.
Data is evidence in both a court of law and in the scientific method.
You might be interested to know that there is "Lies, damned lies, and statistics".
so perhaps we're better served by intuition and a sensationalized media that only cares how much ad value a story derives, despite ANY reference to years of crash data, comparison to historical analysis, etc.?
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