Yeah me too when Consumerist posted the last article on this... It definitely messed me up for a while. So incredibly sad. You can really hear the terror in their voices.

Once, in one of my "other lives" I was driving an autistic client on the freeway. She was belted in the back seat. Without warning (which is how any of my stories from that career begin) she lunged forward and grabbed the parking brake with both hands and yanked back with every ounce of force in her soul. I was driving an automatic at the time (not my car) and discovered firsthand that one can, indeed, throw a car into neutral at freeway speed. Keeping from doing 60mph donuts, that was probably just a combo of luck and terror.

grabs my PC and hugs all the pretty pretty zeros and ones of my current career.... sweet, sweet beautiful zeros and ones.... my precious....

My boyfriend did, and I'd like to think that this cop knew, but, obviously not.

@webweazel: If the gas pedal sticks, give a hard tap to see if it breaks free. If not, put in neutral, steer to a safe area, turn off motor, and apply brakes to stop. (Or turn off motor last.)
If the brake system fails, steer to a safe area, put the motor in neutral, (so you need less braking to stop) turn on your hazard lights, (because you won't have brake lights) HOLD the parking brake release button/lever (do NOT let it catch) while slowly applying the parking brake until you stop.
If a tire blows out at high speed, DO NOT hit the brakes. Stay driving straight, even if you have to fight it a little. Do not jerk the wheel. Steer GENTLY to a safe area, and let the car slow down on it's own. Downshifting can cause trouble here, also. Apply brakes GENTLY only when your speed is very low.
Out of control, aim for "soft" areas to hit to slow you down; hedges, small fences, even grassy lawns. Avoid trees & hydrants. Even gently skidding down a row of parked cars will work, but your insurance guy will hate you.
Every situation is different, but if you know these facts, it might keep you calm enough to think things through, and react appropriately in most situations.
Anybody have more?

@Bathmat: All of this emergency info was drilled into to me in driver's ed class. Going to neutral would have been my first thing. I do NOT like this push-button crapola, and won't buy a car with it. I also will NOT buy a car that I cannot unlock and open the door just by using the handle. In an emergency, the handle is the first thing you aim for. If I've got to fumble with the lock, probably in a panic, before getting out, the car stays on the lot. I know, loaners and rentals are different, but I check the handles/locks anyway, so they are somewhat familiar.

@RedwoodFlyer:

Also the Rock Band 3 kick pedal.

I went out on the highway yesterday, drove 85, and shifted into neutral. The car did not require me to hold it. There is no way to accidentally shift this car into neutral, you must slide the shifter to the right and up to hit neutral, and it locks there. It is actually a fairly similar motion to putting a manual transmission into neutral.

I can only assume that it is similar in the 2009 as there were few design changes.

Number one, I own a stick-shift car, too, and I like it. However, I freely admit that automatics and DSG-style gearboxes are pretty amazing these days, and sometimes superior to manuals. However, as others have noted, this car was a RENTAL. Even if it weren't, you can buy a Lexus ES with a standard transmission anyway.

Number two, you are way off-base on the theory behind push-button starters. As much as anything, they are a safety feature. No key means one less protrusion in the cabin that can injure the driver in a collision.

I would say that this incident does show the advantage of manual transmissions under certain circumstances. A stick car would have accepted a shift to neutral instantly, without a fuss. It would also have accepted a downshift (the Lexus manumatic tranny would not allow a downshift in those circumstances with WOT). Downshifting would have slowed the car abruptly, at the price of over-revving the engine and causing damage to the transmission. The manual offers more positive control over the drive, which can be handy in emergencies. That said, the driver still has to have the presence of mind, in a panic situation, to act appropriately, which is easier said than done.

"apply it to a car he didn't know"

It's your responsibility to know the car you're driving before getting on the road. Not knowing how to put your car in neutral is negligent.

"And this isn't a situation that the police or anybody else train for."

A stuck accelerator is a standard risk; it can happen for many reasons (snapped cable, floor mat, etc.). Anybody should know what to do in that situation, and anybody who thinks seriously about driving risks thinks about that scenario automatically. It's actually one of the few serious mechanical failures that's easy to deal with.

@zarex42:

Like most other things in that car, the transmission is electronically controlled. You should have no problem shifting into neutral in motion, but I guess it's possible that it won't allow you to do it under hard accelleration. I've never driven that car or any new Toyota for that matter, so it's just a guess.

It's one thing to be snarky in an article about Target's funky prices, and completely another in an article that features the violent death of a family.

Sorry, but you rubbed me the wrong way. (And it has nothing to do with religion, I'm Agnostic.)

@Hoss: The car makers are still blaming "the nut behind the wheel", as Ralph Nader described it.

Nothing changes in forty years except it's Japanese companies blaming the customer for their poor manufacturing.

Exactly. This vehicle was equipped with a transmission that had no mechanical linkage to the knob, and the onboard computer has a lockout that won't let you go into neutral if you're going above 15 or 25 mph.

Also, as brakes heat up, they become less effective, and I'd say these brakes faded asap.

I would suspect the driver may have been concerned about not hitting anything, specially pedestrians, which probably demanded a lot of attention. His training ould call to that.

If the whole thing happened in a short time span - say 15-30 seconds - you only have a few moments to try what comes to mind:

It wont's stop!! OK, press the pedal again a couple of times to see if it gets unstuck - No? Darn, I am still accelerating! - OK, hold the brake - until they give - hey watch that car!- BAM! - Ouch, that hurt! You guys OK? - Now, adding the handbrake.. No go? OK Turn of the key - What the hell, no key? Oh yeah, I need to... now lets press that button - where is that button? - and hold it for ... BANG.

That could happen pretty much in the same time it took you to read it.

At some point there is just nothing you can do: Once the car war airborne, that was pretty much endgame.

In most road accidents everything goes from Ok to disaster in 3-5 seconds at most, usually far less. If you were ever in one, you know what I mean. If not, trust me and count yourself lucky.

You can be sure that the dealer would have been happy to give him something other than a gimmicky, overpowered, 270hp luxury sedan if he had asked.

The driver (not the dealer or manufacturer) is responsible for making sure that his vehicle is in drivable condition, including that there are no obstructions in the footwell.

It's the driver's responsibility that he understands his vehicle; he chose a high-tech brand with gimmicky controls (even on a loaner, it's his choice), so if he can't find neutral, or shift down to first gear, or turn off the ignition, it's his fault.

The driver is also responsible for not panicking when there is a malfunction; every car can malfunction for many reasons, and if you're prone to panic and put other people at risk as a consequence, don't get behind the wheel.

He also chose a 270hp V6 vehicle with one of the fastest accelerations in its class. A normal vehicle couldn't crash like that if you tried. And then there is the question of how, during normal, responsible driving, the accelerator could possibly even get stuck at full throttle.

We're lucky he killed only himself and his family; he could have killed a lot of innocent bystanders.

@hedonia: You're right, they do say that in the reports.

Looking at the Google Maps street view, I know that the guy was panicking and all, but...I guess I would have sided against the guardrails earlier on the highway if I were him. There were pleny of them there, and if nothing else it would have killed his speed enough to give him some more time.

I say this sitting in my comfy cubicle at work, and definitely not in the situation...but still, I guess it just overall seems like there are a number of options that he had to stop/slow the vehicle that he did not use.

And you just have to be aware that machines fail and can kill you. Purely mechanical cars can fail as well and kill you. (I still feel more comfortable, however, with stick shift and no cruise control than these hyper-automated cars).

I just read an article not too long ago about the need to kind of train yourself for emergency situations. It said that sometimes people get so terrified when they hear someone breaking into their home that they call 911 and then can't even speak.

If you don't believe me, go down to the Toyota/Lexus dealer near you and test drive one so you can try the shifter. I bet you that the first 4 times you try to get it in neutral you won't understand why it isn't changing.

You have to hold it in place, otherwise it bounces out of the "N" position without changing anything. See it here:
[cars.about.com]

You can see from the photo that Neutral is holding it to the left, with pressure, otherwise it will bounce back to the hold position.

If its the same on the Lexus, there is no way that he would realize that while trying to steer and brake and think at 100 mph on a freeway that was ending. Seriously.

I'm suprised no one has mentioned that, to save a few bucks, the gas pedal only pivots at the firewall; most cars have a double-pivot: one at the firewall and then the pedal itself is mounted on a pivot which allows the pedal to rotate. If the car had been equipped with this type of pedal, I'd venture a guess that the floormat could have been removed with minimal damage to property or life.

@Rachacha: That's a completely sane and logical argument. Where's your conspiracy theory!?!

@evilpete:

You almost can't get manual tranny cars anymore, manuals are only seem to be offered in very high end high performance cars and very loan end.

The 911 operator didn't know either.

@Rachacha: Estrada...

So really, the sequence is 1. move selector to N 2. hold it there for a few seconds - which you need not do with a traditional shifter.

Had I not taken the time to experiment with this, I wouldn't have known. Others without this sort of car would, I would guess, also not know.

On the other hand, I drove my mom's '05 Scion xB (standard transmission) in heels last weekend and was perfectly fine. The pedals are set up in such a way that I can place the balls of my feel on them without my heels hitting the floor. Plus, people tend to use a full-leg motion to drive stick, as opposed to the foot extension you might use on an automatic transmission.

And floor mats only add to the problem - hells get stuck in them really easily, especially in my Civic. It's just not a good time.

@sean98125:
Of course it's a thinking response. That's the only way you can cause a response from something you've never physically done before.

In most cars I have been in, I can reach the gear selector from the back seat easy enough to push it forward into Neutral.

Exceptions would be SUVs/trucks where the gear selector is on the steering column. But in a late-model car, where almost all are between the front seats, he would have been able to reach the gear selector.

If so and #5 was blocked out using Acrobat you can sometime de-censor a document. Many time the censored text is blacked out by placing a opaque object over the text thus leaving the text intact on a lower layer.

@subtlefrog:
Not to point too fine a point on it, but even with the delay it still works the same way: Step 1) move selector to N. Step 2) there is no step 2.

Okay, so there may be a delay, but the method is precisely the same.

The big question is whether it still contains any data at all after sitting for a month and having some fire damage.

@IfThenElvis:

Yeah, I heard the tape, and I was stunned. I still can't quite conceive of why the operator didn't say to shift into N. I can honestly say that's the first thing I would have said.

@sburnap42:
hence, "passenger" also, the 911 call took 44 seconds. Let's put it this way--I wouldn't have died as a pasenger in those circumstances.

@duffman13: The eleven-year old in me had to point out that you said "pooping." ;)

He should have bought a manual transmission car. A real car.

Hmm, perhaps I misunderstood. I thought that means that the driver bought a car with an automatic transmission, a fake car. Please clarify what this sentence means.

From the report above:

The vehicle was a loaned Lexus ES-350

and:

According to the 911 call made by the brother-in-law sitting in the back seat of the Lexus

The driver didn't have time to call 911. The brother-in-law in the back seat wasn't in a position to do anything else.

Then the brother-in-law had to understand the solution, relay it to the driver, and the driver had to understand it, figure out where the button is on a loaner car, and press and hold the button for three seconds.

Some of those 44 seconds were spent impacting the Explorer and then in the other impacts that followed.

That's not a whole lot of time.

@Crabby Cakes:

You are absolutely right about panic--by defintiioon, you can't think straight. But why, oh why didn't the 911 operator say to do it, though? That makes no sense to me.

@Crabby Cakes:
Not only that, but the immediate fix is basically the same--shifting into N in an authomatic is just as effective as putting in the clutch. And, yeah, I drive a manual.

@DefineStatutory:

I'd have reached over and put it in neutral, though.

Hopefully they will also educate 911 operators to help people think of this solution if it happens again...

@jvanbrecht:
I'm sorry I jumped on you, but, no, shifting into neutral will definitely not contribute to a crash.
it is true that in the right circumstances, engine compression braking can cause the wheels to "brake" and even lock up if the drivetrain is engaged, but the motor is not running. It' s actually less likely at higher speed, for exactly the reason you mention: the inertia of the wheels, driveshaft, trans, etc. can more easily spin the engine. But I didn't want to muddy the overall message: put the car in neutral, steer and brake as usual. that is all. It was really the notion that there is something potentially dangerous about shifting into neutral that I was reacting to; I'm sorry that I jumped down your throat, it's just that this tragedy was so unneccesary it drives me almost to tears. I honestly didn't know that everybody didn't know that shifting into neutral is both safe and possible at all speeds, and I really want everyone to know.

I dunno, there is damage in the curb from something hitting it and there is no transition from the road to the curb...it's curbed all the way.

If you move you mouse just right you can zoom in and see the curb damage. I looked around and didn't see any skid marks.

EDIT - I do now see a tube framed gate.

I can't believe he made it to the T-intersection without hitting another car coming off that long off-ramp at 100+ mph.

That's gotta be the spot though, you can see a small body of water. The vehicle must have came to a stop near the wood-line, as the report stated it hit an incline of the upward slope of the riverbed. That is a long distance off-road.

I couldn't imagine being the driver/passenger in such an accident. I'd like to think they were killed instantly upon hitting the first embankment.

@Crabby Cakes: And add in the "I am always in control" law enforcement factor too and you have the perfect storm especially since he was off-duty with his family.

Years ago I drove a school bus. This happened to me, fortunately after I'd dropped of my kids and was on the way back to the garage. Very scary, eventually, after really screwing up the tranny trying to drop into second and first gears, I tried neutral. Got it to shut off, but the mechanics who picked up the bus almost wrecked it because they started it and tried putting it into gear!!! It's extremely frightening, and I can see how they would be panicking and unable to think of the best way to deal with the situation.

@duffman13: See my other comment above about police people who are used to "control" in situations...

@docrice: An issue with police is that they often think that they alway "know and control" the situation and don't think outside of the box especially if his guard was down by being off duty with family...

I didn't know about all the weird stuff like the Lexus' inability to be turned off with just the key and the transmissions with strange electronic demands, so this topic has been a real eye-opener for me.

We're not going to know the answer, basically, but there doesn't have to be anything wrong with the car for that not to have been the solution.

-wrong floormat installed in car (dealer's fault)
-driver not familiar with the vehicle (even in a loaner car, you *should* read the operator manual)
-floormat jammed under accelerator
-driver did not take all steps to stop vehicle**

**-I would think a CHP veteran would know that if the car could not be shut off, it should be put in neutral. He had time to think about what to do here, but this didn't happen. Also, 911 operators should have instructed him similarly if they were on the phone long enough.

This happened to me before, floor mat caused my gas pedal to get stuck, in a frenzy I was ripping at the floor mat with my feet, and finally got it loose, then stomped my foot into the gas pedal to get it to loosen(I was going 120 at this point) and finally breathed a sigh of relief as I was able to brake again.

I threw away those floor mats, this happened about 5 years ago.

@DefineStatutory: That would probably require quite a reach. The driver's legs and the gearshift would probably get in the way. Not to mention that, when the crash does occur, you probably want to be in your seat, with the seatbelt fastened, where the airbag will soften the impact, rather than lying across the driver's knees with the seatbelt crossing your stomach.

As for manual issues, I have owned many, in fact my current car is the first car that was automatic, and only because they came no other way. In my previous car, a 2001 VW 1.8t (worst car I ever owned), I had turned off the ignition at a low rate of speed (around 15 to 20mph), and the car came to an extremely abrupt stop.. (kind of like forgetting your in an automatic, and pressing the cars brake pedal thinking its a clutch and jaming it in.. locking up the seat belts and causing the car to stop very short.... and almost releasing the airbag I suspect.. I never trusted my VW...)...

Now doing that at high speed, I can imagine the wheels immediately locking up, hence why I made the comment. Then again, due to the amount forward momentum, it might also just turn the engine over (without restarting since there is no ignition spark).

The entire purpose of my original comment was a question, not a statement..

The report mentions a 'gouge' in the 6 foot embankment...there is an obvious scar in the embankment. I wonder if this is from this crash or an earlier one?

[maps.google.com]

Here is a map of where it happened.

I'm guessing this is where it happened at.

@Blb3303: Yeah. I got tears in my eyes. What an awful thing to go through. I couldn't believe the caller was as calm as he was - I'd be screaming incoherently. What an avoidable catastrophe.

Your first point was that he should have bought a "real" car. Your first point is dead wrong. Your smug superiority because you drive a car with a manual transmission is irrelevant. This was a loaner car, given to the family to use while their car was in the shop. If you had even a passing familiarity with the facts in this incident you would have known that. This fact is mentioned in the report above and in the comments.

Given your ignorance on the topic, I'm not even going to bother to address the rest of your post.

The lesson we should all take away from this is to always buy a manual transmission vehicle!!! Now if you excuse me, I have to go hug my 94 Civic and kiss my awesome gas-sipping engine :D

Same thing happened to me, well without the burning to death or the pedal stuck to the floormat. But I picked up the car from the dealer, and they screwed up the accelerator cable, and it stuck when first accelerating. I killed the engine with the key, but not before nearly hitting the car in front of me. Thankfully I was able to prevent an accident, and the shop fixed it. But I didn't read them the riot act, like I should have.

Essstrrrradah!

He should have bought a manual transmission car. A real car.
And yeah, that Push-To-Start crap was always a horrible idea (What? You're too lazy to turn a friggin' key? Get outta here!). Hell, whenever I'm rolling up to red light, I even turn off my engine and shift in to neutral to save gas. No point in having it on if I'm going to stop and idle anyways (and NO, turning it off and then back on does NOT waste more gas).

And one more thing, you think a state trooper would have had the idea to put it into neutral naturally? I thought he was trained to handle well under emergencies? Maybe his vehicle model doesn't allow to shift to N after a certain speed or not at all? I'm really confused about that. I hope he didn't just slam his ABS brakes and pray to an invisible man!

My 1994 Civic, though it may be obsolete in every way, I feel is superior to these flashy cars in several aspects. For one thing, my old-as-dirt car is getting ludicrously good MPG ratios with basic parts than these new Lexuses & Acuras.

At some point, as the front seat passenger, wouldn't you reach over and attempt to free the pedal? I know if I were in the passenger seat, and the driver said the gas was stuck down, I'd be down there yanking on the pedal to at least attempt to free it.

(not placing blame, this story has just always seemed really weird to me all the way around)

The 911 operator did have time to suggest turning off the engine.

911 Dispatcher: "I'm sorry?"
Lastrella: "Our accelerator is stuck. We're on 125."
911 Dispatcher: "Northbound 125. What are you passing?"
Lastrella: "We're going 120. Mission Gorge. We're in trouble. We can't … there is no brakes. End freeway half mile."
911 dispatcher: "You can't do anything like turn off your engine?"
Lastrella: "We're approaching the intersection. We're approaching the intersection. We're approaching the intersection."
Others in the care are heard saying "hold on" and "pray."

But notice the report indicates the floormat in the vehicle was the WRONG floormat for the vehicle.

The only devastation was to the transmission...

I don't know why he didn't shift into neutral. My wife probably wouldn't think to either, she just knows drive, park and reverse. Neutral could have saved this guy's life.

I feel like people these days have a deficiency in car knowledge, knowing how power got fron the engine to the wheels should be elementary knowledge. I have had a stuck pedal before due to flip-flop operator error, and pooping the car from gear into neutral is exactly what I did, since I knew cutting the mechanical link between the engine and the wheels would let me brake and remove my flip-flop.

What exactly is the problem with the floor mats? My last 4 cars have all had a hook/slot in them to prevent them from moving around. Does toyota not do this? because nissan, acura, honda and audi all certainly do.

@Hil-fish: But they were in control enough to call 911.

@jvanbrecht:

No, shifting into neutral will not result in a crash! Please,please, please don't say things that willl cause people to question that life-saving maneuver. Shutting down the engine WILL NOT lock up the wheels. Nor will the wheels "lose traction" because they are not being driven by the engine. As a driver of a manual car, I can assure you that putting in the clutch, or shifting into neutral (i.e., removing engine power from the driven wheels) at ANY speed has NO effect on the traction of the wheels. ZERO.
Similarly, shifting into neutral will disconnect the engine power from the driven wheels. That's it--there's no extra "free-wheeling" danger.

@Hil-fish:

Nobody has yet explained why the 9-1-1 operator didn't advise to do it--presumably that person wasn't panicked.

Estrada!

I have always been curious about the pushbutton starts.. I have a hybrid camry (I believe all the hybrids and cars with the smart key option all use the same mechanism). I have always wanted to push the button (at low speed around my block) to see what would happen, but would be worried about destroying something.

That leads me to the next point.. shutting off the vehicle while in motion and in gear.. would that not cause the wheels to potentially lock up, or atleast lose significant traction based on the engines internal resistance....... Either way, at 100mph.. that alone could cause a devastating crash..

Then again, at the same time throwing it into neutral would result in freewheeling, which could also result in a severe crash at those speeds...

Lulz

It's very tragic that panicking cost him (and the others) their lives.

Also, and slightly off topic, I mentioned that my car, if shut down, goes to Park. Others responded that automatics have safeties to protect against dropping the transmission from this - but I've got a Prius, which isn't automatic. It's a continuous variable transmission. I wonder how it would respond. No, I am not going to try it just for giggles. But there are a lot of Prii out there, and it would be interesting to know. Anyone with a knowledge of cars?

@Rachacha: I just assumed that since the cause of the crash is clear and unquestioned from the other data available, there was no need to examine the EDR.

Some good changes will come to this, it's a shame that the family had to perish to make this happen. The sad fact is that sometimes, things like this just happen. The Titanic had to sink with most of the crew/guests aboard dying to get safety regs changed on ships, the same things happen with air travel and train travel. It sucks so much, but from our mistakes and tragedies, knowledge is gained and applied. There are only so many scenarios a business can foresee and test out.

I listened to the 911 call. I was shaken.

I actually had the opposite problem once - the floor mat in my car got bunched up behind the pedal and made it difficult to depress. About scared me to death - I kept imagining what could have happened if it had gotten bunched up behind the brake instead of the gas.

And come to think of it, that was a Toyota, too...

@GitEmSteveDave: #RosaRocks: Wondering if there is more of an issue than just matts. We just bought a new Camry!

@GitEmSteveDave: #RosaRocks: Not to make light of the situation, but all I can picture is Eric Estrada dressed in a 1970s female disco outfit.

Tragic for the family as its was a loaner- they probably didnt know about the 3 second shuttoff for the engine.

I use after market floor mats after the original tears up and they occasionally slide around. The worse situation I've had was having one curl up under the brake pedal, inhibiting its full range of motion. Thankfully I'm a cautious driver and had enough time to pull it back out of the way in time. I also downshifted to get compression braking.

With regards to the inspection of the Event Data recorder, this report is dated approximately 1 month after the accident, and was based on an inspection of the vehicle 4 business days (6 calendar days) after the accident. The inspector likely prepared the report the following week, circulated the report for internal clearance, review and signatures, and it was date stamped on the day that Mr Saul signed the document.

Accident investigations are very procedural in nature. You want to find out as much information as possible without destroying the evidence. It is possible that the EDR is somewhere in the engine or passenger compartment and to get to it would require taking a torch to the vehicle.

There is no conspiracy here that I can see.

I know, a lot of surmising. I'm not trying to absolve Toyota, just noting that the circumstances in this case helped create a "perfect storm" for an accident. And though Toyota knew about the problem, we can't assume the dealership did when they put in the wrong mat.

@yzerman:

First, mall odern cars like this one have a rev limiter that prevents the engine from blowing. Second, who cares about a blown engine compared to these consequences? Finally, power steereing doesn't do anything at high speeds. Bottom line, if you're able to put the ignition into "accessory," hgreat, that'll work. However, it wasn't obvious how to do that in this car--shfiting into neutral *always* works.

@yzerman: Hmm blow the engine on a loaner or die horribly in a fiery crash, difficult choice.

@Bathmat:

This has been covered, a lot: there was, and is a way to disengage the engine in an emergency--put it neutral. There is, by federal law, no mecahnical or electronic impediment to doing so in motion.

I hope I never need to remember this under driving conditions, but I think I'm likelier to now with this sobering reminder.

Unfortunately the doofus (THIS WAS AN FBI DOCUMENT) who published the PDF did not for see that I would use my mouse to select the text - all of the classified items were quite visible after the fact.

Of course it was some boring internal memo that made no sense to me so I cant remember what it said. Said day.

@dionicios: Well, they already blamed the driver saying the main cause was pushing the gas to the floor.

At a high rate of speed if you lose power steering your able to still turn the car fairly easily until you slow down which at that point your safe and you didn't destroy your car engine.

As for part 5, I'm guessing it was something either grisly and/or personal, which is why it was redacted.

I think the EDR hasn't been recovered yet because due to the damage, it probably has to be sent to a special facility for recovery, and all sides will probably need a representative there to observe the reading.

Such a sad case. I wondering if high healed shoes and boots could also get caught. I'm sure the driver would just pull the shoe out, but seems that the gas pedal is too close to the cab floor?