Posted on 03/02/2010 1:38:54 PM PST by Leroy S. Mort
On Feb. 23, a House Energy & Commerce subcommittee held lengthy hearings on the Toyota situation. Their first witnesses after the committee members' opening statements were Eddie and Rhonda Smith of Sevierville, Tenn., who related the story of their 2007 Lexus ES 350.
Ms. Smith claimed she had been driving toward Interstate 40 when, immediately after entering the highway, her Lexus started accelerating out of control. Ms. Smith related how the cruise-control light came on, so she turned that system off. She put the automatic transmission into all of its gears, including neutral and reserve. She put both feet on the brakes and still nothing. According to her testimony and an article published at WATE.com on Aug. 29, 2007, she also engaged the parking brake. She called her husband—not that she felt he could help, but "just to hear his voice one more time"—and then, according to her testimony, "prayed for God to help me." Ms. Smith credited God with intervening after she'd gone six miles at more than 100 mph. The car simply started slowing down, and she could finally bring it to a complete stop.
Smith's testimony was riveting and highly emotional, and anyone watching could see she honestly believed she was relating what actually happened. No viewer could have been untouched by her sincerity. But that's not the end of her story.
Her local Lexus dealer examined her car and could find nothing. Then, as Ms. Smith related, the NHTSA actually sent an employee down to Tennessee to investigate her complaint. Only the NHTSA concluded that she had two sets of floor mats in her car—a rubber all-weather floor mat, placed on top of the standard factory issue—and it was likely that situation had created her problem.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
?? Sounds like another job for "Justin Case".
This car is haunted.
This story sounds unbelieveable, because it is Unbelievable, but whatever she was smoking -—I want some.
what did God do, turn off the ignition??
""her Lexus started accelerating out of control. Ms. Smith related how the cruise-control light came on, so she turned that system off. She put the automatic transmission into all of its gears, including neutral and reserve...
As for Ms. Smith's position that she threw her car into reverse and it did nothing to either stop the car or damage the transmission, that's an incredible claim that so far no mechanic believes...
Follow-up: The Smiths sold their Lexus after that incident, and, also according to the Journal, last week the NHTSA checked with the new owners and "they have had no problems with the Lexus since they bought it with less than 3,000 miles on the car."""
The whole Toyota thing is nothng ut a plot by the communists in the White House to boost the fortunes of Government Motors — which will NEVER ave an IPO.
Who’d want GM now, except the Kenyan Usurper and his Gang of Marxists?
These hearings and commercials are brought to you by Joker Face and BooHooOnomics?
Does this remind anyone of Alar and the Great Apple Scare…
What is that saying about making a car 'idiot-proof' and the ingenuity of the idiot?
You know, I'll bet that you could create the same problem with a Chevy, if you pile a bunch of cinder blocks on the driver's floor, they can shift and cause acceleration too. Has Congress had a meeting on that?
Just more evidence that Government Motors wants to kill off Toyota. And for the record, isn’t it revealing that every time the Democratics pull out some sob-story “victim,” it turns out that a little fact checking proves the “victim” to be either a fraud, exaggerator or bold faced liar.
I have a 1990 F250. One day last summer I was approaching traffic with the lead vehicle slowing to make a turn. I was towing my 5th wheel trailor. When I depressed the brake pedal I discovered my brakes were non-functional. I attempted to stop my pick-up by throwing my gear lever into park - nothing happened, and there was no ill-effects upon my transmission. Luckily I did not strike the vehicle in front of me either.
It’s not unusual for an old person to accidentally stomp on the gas thinking it’s the brake. She probably did that in a panic and thought she was trying to stop.
Interesting - article doesn’t mention the age of the lady. The mention of the floor mat, though, might be telling.
I want to know if that is true--my understanding has been that shifting the car into neutral manually with the shifter will disconnect the car from the wheels; the engine may run up but the car isn't powered.
Does anyone know if that is correct?
Anybody remember the TV show “My Mother the Car” with Jerry Van Dyke???
Shouldn't anyone from the US Gov't be recused from any dealings with this Toyota issue? Isn't it something of a conflict of interest?
In the clip that I saw she seemed - shall we say, elderly.
(I am not a transmission guy.) When you say “nothing happened” when you shifted from Drive to Park, you don’t mean that your truck remained in Drive gear, do you?
If so, how did you eventually stop? You didn’t continue driving with that transmission, did you?
Sounds like Ms. Smith has graduated from the John Edwards school of testification.
No, my truck did not come to a stop. And, yes, I’m still driving with that transmission. I took the truck into my transmission specialist for an inspection. It’s in great shape.
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