He did, it didn’t do anything. The “gear shift” is just a switch mechanism that attaches to the chip that runs the transmission. If the chip is malfunctioning, “shifting” to neutral DOES NOTHING.
Like I said, this guy was a trained Highway Patrol officer, not some idiot who didn’t know how to drive. There have been too many other instances where people reported the same thing, all the things that are supposed to work didn’t. The common factor is they are all controlled by a computer chip.
Everybody ain’t dying either so I would SAY he didn’t do something he should have.
But you forgot an important point.....he was driving a loaner vehicle that he was unfamiliar with.
The Lexus loaner had the push-button ignition that must be depressed for 3 seconds to turn the engine off.....something the officer probably did not know at the time. Also, the automatic gearshift layout is very confusing, so in a panic, going from D to N is not intuitive.
I believe this unfamiliarity with the vehicle contributed to the unfortunate deaths.