San Francisco Bay Area Accidents: Sudden Acceleraton Can Always Happen
Having a car take off as if it has a mind of its own is pretty unnerving. It happened to me when I was in college, driving a friend's old Buick, and the accelerator stuck. I felt panicked at first, then shifted into neutral, which solved the problem. Fortunately, I didn't hit anything between the onset of the problem and deciding what to do. Now everyone's thinking about sudden acceleration, and, I would imagine, what they would do if it happened. Here's the Consumer Reports guide to how to deal with sudden acceleration.
Now we are all hearing about this problem on a daily basis because of the massive problems with Toyotas. First we heard that it was caused by sticking floormats, and Toyota had a big floormat recall. Then we heard that it was faulty accelerator pedals, and Toyota announced another recall. Now we are seeing reports that cars that have had "the fix" are still having the problem, and it's been suggested that the problem lies elsewhere--perhaps with electronics.
This isn't the first time that this has happened, of course. If you've been driving a while, you may recall the major problem Audi had with the model 5000 back in the 1990's. That acceleration problem was much less dangerous, because it usually occurred from a stop. It resulted in lockouts being installed on virtually all automatic transmission cars thereafter, requiring drivers to press the brake pedal before a solenoid releases the shift lever out of park. Already there is talk of the Toyota problems causing new regulations requiring a safety override that would kick in when the brakes are pressed.
As cars become laden with more electronic substitutes for direct mechanical operation of basic functions, the possibilities for these problems increase. Already, there are "drive by wire" and "brake by wire" systems, where the driver's actions have no physical connection to the wheels or brakes, only to electronic sensors that signal motors to do the work.
Hopefully Toyota owners will be reassured by a definitive solution to this problem. But going forward, drivers of all cars should be prepared with an action plan in the event of sudden acceleration.
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