Posted on 03/09/2010 2:16:17 PM PST by JoeProBono
All true statements. However, his autopsy revealed that epilepsy was not to blame.
I didn’t know that. I wasn’t aware they could even determine one way or the other whether he had a recent seizure since he died from drowning (as did the other passengers).
I guess the cause still remains unknown.
btt
6. To what extent do we know that this whole thing isn’t one part mass hysteria and one part witch hunt?
You may be right. This is the article I read which lead me to believe that epilepsy was ruled out:
http://cbs11tv.com/local/southlake.toyota.crash.2.1471874.html
“And an autopsy released today said there was no evidence he had a seizure before the crash.”
No evidence does not necessarily mean it didn’t happen.
You are correct, this was the incident I was getting confused with.
However, it doesn’t mean he did have a seizure either.
There have been at least a couple of incidents caught on 911 tape where it’s pretty clear that the floor mats aren’t the problem.
Going 75 down the Interstate is not a good place to get the “blue screen of death”. But now we know why Toyota was dragging their feet. It was the test of a fix.
Followup to the story of the guy that managed to drive a Toyota with a stuck throttle to a dealership. Wasn’t the floormats at all.
As someone else commented at the link, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the car was currently being dissected by Hyundai to investigate what happened.
Notice that he could dial 911 and talk while supposedly panicked. Yet he claims he didn’t put the car in neutral because he “didn’t know if the car would flip”...!!!
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/09q4/how_to_deal_with_unintended_acceleration-tech_dept
Stopping these vehicles is not rocket science. A flick of the wrist would have put the car in neutral and the breaks would have easily stopped the car very quickly.
Are there problems with Toyota’s accelerators? Yes. But there is little reason for deaths or injuries.
Further, I still firmly believe that a large number of the “unintended acceleration” incidents are human-error. Stuff under/on the pedal, folks hitting the wrong pedal (I know more than one person who has done this with a resulting accident, swearing it was the gas pedal - when I have seen them both accidentally hit the gas instead of the break more than once before).
But check out that article from Car and Driver. A real eye-opener.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.