America. We complain about over priced health care, jobs leaving the country and the effects of job los on the individual families but there is one word that is almost never spoken during these discussions. The reason is that many people feel guilty or feel like they’re kicking a man while he is down. The word is “ACCOUNTABILITY”.
In this writing I’d like to discuss accountability as it applies deaths resulting from the sudden acceleration issues that are not plaguing Toyota. Toyota may not be the guilty party here and I feel that our government is wasting millions of dollars in unnecessary time looking for someone to blame.
What is an car? At its most core definition, a car is a machine. The car is a machine that mobilizes the human race. Though most cars are far safer than the average factory machine, cars are involved in millions of deaths per year. When a press operator dies, OSHA investigates the incident. They look at a variety of items in searching for the reason for the death. Often times, if that worker has been properly trained and failed to follow the examples outlined in their training, then the worker might be considered responsible for their own death.
In the most visible case or sudden acceleration, a family died while the father was on the phone with a 911 operator. This is where I was immediately upset at this person’s lack of understanding of his own vehicle and I feel that his lack of knowledge and inability to remain calm contributed more to the death of his family than did the acceleration.
My first thought was that if you have time to grab your phone and call 911 and wait for them to answer, then you have time to save your own life (in this situation, of course).
First option: CALMLY place the car into neutral. I haven’t seen a car that will not easily slip into “N” which will disengage the drive train. The result would be a deceleration and a safe stop.
Second option: CALMLY turn the ignition back 1 click to the “ACC” position. This should cut power to the engine rendering it lifeless. The result will be a coasting car that can be safely stopped.
My wife argued that turning the ignition will cause the steering wheel to lock up. If you remain calm, this won’t happen, if it does, just turn the key to the “ACC” position. With my family in the car, I demonstrated both methods to my wife. Both worked as described but with one safety feature that I did not know was present in my 2008 Chevy suburban. With the shifter in any position other than Park “P”, the ignition would not turn past the “ACC” position which means there is absolutely no danger of engaging the anti theft steering locking mechanism. I thought that this was interesting enough to mention.
I don’t know if it is true on Toyota or other vehicles but it seems painfully obvious that there were other options available to these people that fail to operate their machinery properly. In factory machinery, there is an emergency shut off switch or button. Your car has an ignition and in the driver training course that I took 20 years ago, this was explained to us.
People do not read their cars’ manual or practice safety procedures. They do not plan for emergency situations and the results are tragic. For these reasons, I do not feel that Toyota is to blame for deaths related to sudden acceleration when there is time to react and that reaction time is evident in a phone call to 911.
Accountability should rule that “If the user fails to use the product in a safe manner which includes the deployment of practical safety measures, then that user is responsible for any outcome.”
The manufacturer should not be held responsible when people fail to use their products properly. And we wonder why, in this country, everything is so expensive.
Leander
Canton, MI