Floor mats don’t kill people, governments not regulating car companies into oblivion kill people.
The U.S. Government warns 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus owners affected by an urgent recall to “immediately remove driver’s side floor mats” after one was suspected of causing a fiery Lexus crash killing a family of four in San Diego.
Toyota says it will order an immediate floor mat recall at the behest of the Department of Transportation after a mat was suspected of snagging a gas pedal on a runaway Lexus, ending with a fiery crash that killed four family members in San Diego.
It’s not toyota’s fault that the dealer put aftermarket floormats on top of the factory ones which are attached to the floor and will not move.
I call Shenanigans. This probably only happens to drivers who allow their floormats to get bunched up and travel over the gas pedal.
In real life, for a stuck accelerator, switch the transmission into neutral and step on brake. If the brake is encumbered by the floor mat as well, use the hand break.
Could this ludicrous government-mandated recall of a General Motors’ competitor be connected to the influence from the Commander-in-Chief of G.M.(and his lackeys in the UAW)?
What a load of bollocks! I’ve had my accelerator cable get caught in the engine and the car took off…. your options are: 1. break 2. handbreak 3. but car neutral and 4. turn the car off (I put into the neutral then turned the car off then put the break on which probably wasn’t the best thing to do to the gearbox, but when it happens you don’t have a lot of time to think). Recalling floor mats seems a bit harsh … surely its driver error?
I read of this recently happening to Prius drivers in Canada. And I once witnessed it happen to a car in a department store car park – to her credit, the elderly lady hit the handbrake and pulled out the ignition key (in that order).
And having a recall because there is a possible dangerous situation that could result in uncontrolled acceleration is wrong because….???
Hey… free new floormats and less risk of a lethal problem… why are you Teabaggers complaining????
I don’t own a Toyota, but I did have a set of aftermarket floormats, they worked themselves up under the gas pedal and I couldn’t go and had to get out of the car, on the freeway, to fix it. Thank goodness for gridlock.
Haven’t used aftermarket mats with-out clips since.
Officer, it isn’t my fault…
… THE FLOOR MAT DID IT!!!!!!!
Awake naively asks the question:
And having a recall because there is a possible dangerous situation that could result in uncontrolled acceleration is wrong because….???
Because of the horrendous unnecessary costs thanks to the Nanny State mentality and it reeks of political cronyism.
This type of thing is driven by lawsuits, not legislation. I would bet money that this is the end result of Toyota losing a big money lawsuit and it is cheaper to replace floor mats then to now pay for hundreds more similar lawsuits.
Don’t blame Toyota, blame the lawyers for filing frivolous lawsuits (and winning).
If the guy had turned off the car instead of calling 911. He may be alive. The good news is one less lame driver is on the road.
Slip the runaway vehicle’s transmission into Neutral, ASAP. Begin controlled breaking and steer off the road. Stop, apply parking break, turn off the ignition. Then deal with whatever he heck is jamming the accelerator linkage. It could be a bunched up floor mat, or a toy wedged next to the pedal. Or even the return spring, on the other end, may have broken or come off. That’s why there use to be two of them. But I don’t know if they double them any more.
Our 2005 Buick has a cleat near the drive side door, just in front of the seat’s floor rail. We bought after-market mats, to replace the dirty ones (used car). The replacement drive side mat had no attachment for the cleat. So I cut a strip of leather, sewed it to the corner of the floor mat, and button holed the leather strip to hook onto the cleat. Now the mat can’t move up under the gas pedal. I’d assume most recent model cars have this cleat. But mats sold in auto store, may not have anything to hook on. So instead of recalling cars, they should recall cheap knockoff mats. Or provide a kit to add a cleat securer to it’s corner. That would be the cheapest and fastest way to fix the problem. Recalling cars over the mats, just seems a huge waste. Is the US gov. punishing Toyota, for having the best sales during the “cash for clunkers” period? Nice way to drive down Toyota’s stock price. To help out GM.
See if Americans were not so “brainwashed” about foreign cars from all these high end marketing and advertising firms none of this would of happened
Let me put on my libertarian hat here:
Forcing the car companies to recall their cars because of potentially dangerous situations is burdensome government regulation! The free market can handle this! Here’s how:
Car X is more likely to explode in a fireball upon normal driving. People who buy Car X will likely die in a fireball, and thus will not buy another Car X! With Car X fans dying in fireballs, eventually only fans of Cars Y and Z will be left, so no one will buy Car X any more! See the mighty free market work its magic!
Well, except for all those Car X fans. But hey, they died free!!!!!
Isn’t life in libertarian land wonderful???
…yeah. Thank you for your eloquent defense-by-misdirection of the government causing a 3.8-million-person panic over a floor mat that was maybe, possibly involved in a single crash. Your countrymen thank you. Ideally, with sharp, pointed sticks.
You talkin’ to me, zeph? My point is that in general, safety recalls are a good thing. Occasionally maybe they aren’t so good. But that doesn’t mean we throw out the system. Enron was a failure of capitalism, but we haven’t discarded capitalism.
Capiche?
Of all those who have so helpfully explained what you’d do (or have done) while calling this guy a wing-nut, how many even took a minute to consider IF (and I am not saying I know) there really is an issue. Is it so hard to believe that there could be a bad design that made it all the way to production…one that could freeze the gas pedal down and cause people to crash? Really? Are we so quick to call EVERYTHING a political issue that we can’t even discuss the issue of the real risk and IF a manufacturer is responsible? Isn’t it in the interest of the manufacturer to recall a bad product like this for liability reasons? I dunno, maybe that says it all…they’d have done it on their own had there been a financial risk.
So sad. It is always back to the financial risks and acceptable damages.
Reminds me of a certain movie.
“A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 miles per hour. The gas pedal locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now: do we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, (A), and multiply it by the probable rate of failure, (B), then multiply the result by the average out-of-court settlement, (C). A times B times C equals X…If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don’t do one.”
“Are there a lot of these kinds of accidents?”
“Oh, you wouldn’t believe.”
(emphasis mine)
rofl..ONE MAT triggers a 3.8million car recall??? -and it is merely suspected?? no conclusive testing or proof? -please..
–That settles it, this new administration-owned GM is pure
f’n ebil!
I wonder if has anything to do with the newly elected Japanese party vowing not be our patzi anymore, including not keeping the Yen depressed. In not so many words, the new finance minister indicated a stronger Yen would be good for Japan….It’s at 89.52, hasn’t been that low in almost a year i think..
Or, perhaps because the Japanese parliament has been very vocal the past year in questioning the legitimacy of the official 9/11 story, this is a not-so-subtle nudge
to STFU or else..
We are on extreme thin ice with all our foreign backers, playing this type of economic warfare may be business as usual, however, playing it right now could expedite our upcoming relocation as the bottom of the ocean.
-s
#14, Close, but no cigar.
Now I know why you are such an Obamabot. You really don’t have clue.
Let me help:
Forcing the car companies to recall their cars because of potentially dangerous situations is burdensome government regulation! The free market can handle this! Here’s how:
If a fatal crash occurs, watchdog groups alert the numerous privately owned safety companies about the problem.
These companies alert their subscribers to possible problems and to be alert for more forthcoming information.
Responsible drivers take care.
These companies test Car X and determine that Car X is more likely to explode in a fireball upon normal driving and recommend a recall.
They also alert their subscribers.
Car X’s manufacturer notifies everybody about the recall, if they decide to have one. If they don’t, the safety companies alert the press.
Everyone who cares about their own safety reads the reports and eventually Car X is fixed or the company goes out of business.
The government was even needed. See the mighty free market work its magic!
#16, Enron was a failure of capitalism, but we haven’t discarded capitalism.
What?!?!!?
Enron was a failure of oversight, not capitalism. Sheesh. I can’t believe you spout that crap.
#20 LL the libertarian still living in his fantasy libertarian land. Watchdog groups? What watchdog groups? LL waves his magic libertarian wand and conjures up watchdog groups. Safety companies? What safety companies? LL waves his magic libertarian wand again and conjures up safety companies. He then waves his magic libertarian wand yet again and conjures up the large amounts of money these mythical groups need to perform their function. And press? What press? Without government regulation, the press will be owned by the big corporations and would never print anything to hurt their profit margins. But no matter. Just wave that wand again. Poof, poof, poof. All is well in libertarian land.
And psst… here’s a secret for ya. The founders of capitalism considered oversight an integral part of capitalism. Maybe you missed that, living in your libertarian fantasyland. We violated the fundamental rules of capitalism, i.e. removed oversight, and capitalism failed. How about that.
What happened to you… did a government beat you up on the way home from school when you were a kid? Is that why you hate them so much? What goofs these libertarians are! 🙂
I was surprised to learn some driver’s side mats did not attach to the carpet to prevent this. I have owned three Toyota’s and all of them do this. What is also interesting is that these are the more expensive models? If common sense was more common people would have prevented this without a recall. I have always been more concerned about those mud mats that are much thicker. Those look like they could really cause problems.
#21,
Watchdog groups? What watchdog groups?
Safety companies? What safety companies?
The ones that will pop up when government regulations are removed, making them a viable enterprise.
large amounts of money these mythical groups need to perform their function.
Notice I said “subscribers?” You pay a fee to get their reports. Like Consumer Reports? Get a clue.
And psst… here’s a secret for ya. The founders of capitalism considered oversight an integral part of capitalism.
Oversight. Not Control. And Personhood was certainly NOT in the picture.
Big Difference.
We violated the fundamental rules of capitalism, i.e. removed oversight, and capitalism failed. How about that.
Um, the regulations were there. They just weren’t enforced. Laws don’t prevent illegal activity unless you USE them.
What happened to you… did a government beat you up on the way home from school when you were a kid? Is that why you hate them so much? What goofs these libertarians are! 🙂
What happened to you? Did your little sister protect you from school bullies so now you don’t know how to take care of yourself?
What a bunch of pussies these liberals are.
Didn’t Nader have a car watchdog group that blasted the Corvair. When the government started doing safety tests of cars they decided the Covair was fine.
Then there is the Pelzmann effect that if car accidents are safer, people drive more aggressively which causes more accidents than the safety features prevent. Therefore safety regulations cause more danger and death.
I have never had a car that had clips that hold the floor mats down. Is this a common feature on newer cars. I have used the same floor mats that I bought a flee market in Pennsylvania on all six cars I’ve owned since my first car and they didn’t have clips. None of them wanted to bunch up and get under the accelerator. If they got out of place, they usually slipped under the seat.
I had a baby bottle roll under the brake pedal and I couldn’t stop and had quite a panic for a moment (didn’t hit anything, though). The kid had one hell of an arm…threw it from the BACK seat!
Why didn’t the car company have the baby or the bottle recalled or the government ban babies or bottles from the car?
I had something similar happen to me in my airplane. My passenger dropped his coke bottle and it rolled under my rudder controls. On short final. I aborted the landing, pulled it out, and everything was ok. I think it scared him more than me, though I wasn’t too happy.
I now insist on stowing EVERYTHING in the backseat, in a bag, while landing and taking off.
The IIHS and Consumer Reports are both examples of private watchdog groups. they both do more testing and better testing than the government ever has. Yay free market!
Better yet let’s quit giving driver licenses to idiots that don’t know what to do if a car starts running away. This should be part of basic driver training. Put the car in neutral, do not turn off the engine as most cars have power steering and brakes. Pull safely to the side of the road then turn off the engine. Yeah the engine will be racing like hell but so what. The Car Talk guys have covered this before. Getting on the phone to 911 while careening through traffic is just plain lame.
heck, most states don’t even require a student driver to parallel park, anymore. Teach them what to do in an emergency……yeah, right. Text “help”?
#23 The ones that will pop up when government regulations are removed, making them a viable enterprise.
There goes that magic wand again. Things “just happen” in libertarian land.