120 +mph lexus crash in san diego/floormats

All weather mats suck.

Seems like there would be *something* that could have been done.

I mean, in a big lexus you could put the thing into a wall at any speed under 80 or so and likely walk away.

Sad story though

 

On the lexus website it's got a shifter. And I don't know why shifting into neutral would be "unsafe" and require some mechanism to stop it.

Every automatic I've driven will just pop into neutral, usually not even needing the button on the stick to be pushed.

Who knows though.

 

Have you ever driven a car at 120mph and tried to stop it while the engine is pushing as hard as it can?

Completely different scenario than the one you have mentioned. When a car is already travelling at 120mph the brakes have to slow the cars mass already PLUS in this case the throttle was wide open therefore the brakes ALSO had to slow the pushing very hard engine. In this situation brakes will fade very quickly and then the car will start to accelerate and not pretty.

IMO driver side car mats should be illegal. No need for them, just clean your car occassionally. Even my father has had an accident caused by car mats.
Pete
ps: Oh and maybe the wanky marketing guys installing all these push botton starts will now stop playing and return to practical key starts. Motorcycles have push button starts BUT they also have a very prominant KILL switch ... do these stupid cars have this?. Obviously not!

Marketing car industry people are completely killing the automobile ... lets let the engineers back in control please!

 

My friends Range Rover has the PCM under the passenger seat. They spilt a coffee on the floor couldn't shift the car out of reverse. It's all electronic, no physical connection to the car. at the shifter..... It did shut- off but no re-start. When the wrecker came it was a four wheel slide/drag onto the flatbed....WTF?

 

Time to return to mechanical controls.

And they want us to drive cars with electronically controlled or activated brakes ... no fncken way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I work with computers (software mainly), and they completely snck. Almost anything is more reliable and dependable. The only good thing is they keep me employed.
Pete

 

I hope this case actually makes manufacturers change designs here. This is a sad waste of 4 lives (one just 13 and still starting out), amazing that it was not more all because the designers did not think: "How does the poor driver stop the engine in an emergency, quickly?".

Having to hold the button in for 3 seconds is a complete joke. Heck a Lexus would be doing 40mph from a standing start in 3 seconds and would already have crashed, most likely.

Again if buttons to start a car is the way we need kill switches like motorcycles have. Very poor effort Toyota ... poor family.
Pete

 

He was a 50 year old CHP officer with his wife, two kids, and his brother-in-law in the car. No, I doubt this was a joyride.

 

I disagree with the floormats. The mats in my car do not move at all because of the velcro it attaches too. Even the floormats in my truck, which did not have any sort of anti-sliding mechanism on them stayed in place. So making drivers side floormats illegal wouldn't solve anything.

I do agree with you on the push-button and all-electronic-everything. There are something things that just need to stay "behind the times" and that is automobiles.

 

As previously mentioned in this thread, some cars have holes in the mats and a hook on the floor that latches on and prevents any movement. That should be a standard. I have never had any problems with mine.

You do, or at least you should. I know that if my accelerator is stuck and the brakes aren't slowing me down enough I should throw the car into neutral. Fortunately enough every car I've had to use this on was a manual transmission car or an automatic that could move to neutral with just a slap (no button pressing required).

On to the topic of brakes actually overpowering an engine... not always. I know that at or around 10MPH with the accelerator pressed to the floor and the brakes all the way to the floor my car will not slow down or stall (manual). I also, unfortunately, had the experience to find out that my friends Jeep Grand Cherokee (1998) will not come to a complete stop with the same conditions. I should note that on both occasions the tires did not spin/squeal, the engines maintained a somewhat constant RPM range. I can only imagine how completely useless the brakes would be at speed. Maybe brakes have come a long way in the 10 year gap of vehicle years I've had to do this in, I don't know and hopefully won't need to find out under dire circumstances.

 

Unfortunately people panic, and in this case the most logical thing would be for most people to go for the ignition key ... Lexus took that away and replaced it with a button that does not provide the same functionality.

In my opinion the functionality of this button killed this family, immediately these cars and others with the same functionality should be removed from the road and design changed, via a world wide recall. Many cars have these stupid "ON" buttons now not just Lexus's ... all should be redesigned to enable immediate off functionality.

I definitely don't want to be riding my motorcycle in front of a Lexus from now on, knowing the driver has only limited control. Yes I'm debateably over reacting, but not being able to kill the engine means the driver only has limited control of this over 2 tonne object.
Pete

 

I checked tonight and the Mercedes S550 will let you into neutral driving down the street with the stupid peg shifter. I guess he didn't think of shifting to neutral.. Neutral would have saved them.

 

Hind sight always sounds good after the fact. May they all RIP.

 

Regular brakes don't work very well when attempting a high speed panic stop. Brake fade is a b&tch.

 

See this?

Toyota recalls 3.8 million vehicles
Potentially dangerous floor mats cited for company's largest U.S. recall

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33077383/ns/business-autos

Wow, nice law suit/s over this one.

 

Recall.... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090929/ap_on_bi_ge/us_toyota_floor_mats

 

I was riding in a friend's Fiat 850 Spyder and somehow the brakes gave out. We were only doing about 15mph at the time but while turning into a parking lot he killed the motor by turning off the key. Unfortunately, he turned the key too far and locked the steering. With that, we arched right into the curb (crunch).

Maybe this Lexus driver never drove a standard shift and therefore wasn’t as familiar with “neutral” as the ones who do.

 

Hold the "START" button down for 3 seconds and the engine will stop.

You might want to test this ahead of time.

 

I tested the start/stop button on the 330i and it kills the engine even if the car is in motion. You lose power steering and brakes, but keep your life.

 

Agree, but sorry I still think 3 seconds is rediculous ... 1 second I can accept but what is wrong with instant?. You are not going to accidentally hit the button anyway.

Yes the mat is bad, but the functionality of this button is poor also. Both should be addressed at the same time ... otherwise buy another brand, preferrably with a ignition key.
Pete

 

Dents can be fixed ...

Driver must have full control ALL the time IMO.
Pete

 

I'm a veteran firefighter and have taken classes with toyota on their hybrid cars. What people dont realize is that push start buttons were placed in the Lexus/Toyota brand originally because it was a safety kill switch for emergency responders to ensure that the car was off in the prius. People dont seem to understand that these are not a safest option for cars that arent hybrids.

I can tell you having done real life extractions on hybrids your fate is in the hands of a few manufacture gimmicks. Its sad that cars today have this crap and get people killed.

 

These push button deals remind me of years back when some sales people didn't inform (or owners didn't explore or read their manuals) on how ABS worked. There was a deal on Dateline about a rash of accidents and many of hte comon responses were "I liffted off the brakes, because I heard the chatter and thought something was broken".

An instance like this has many areas of slacking fom the manufact, to the dealer to sales right down to the driver.

Sadly these people lost their lives but some good will come of it and many poeple have now thought of, practiced, invetigated, learened more about their cars/etc because of this scenario and may save some others in the future

 

what do u suppose an E brake is for ?

Most people are clueless drivers

 

Most OM call them parking brakes, not emergency brakes...