Page 97 - Toyota Under Fire

TOYOT A UNDER FIRE

It’s hard to imagine more compelling evidence of the cause of
the Saylor accident. The floor mat explanation also answers a lot
of the lingering questions about what happened to the Saylors.
The investigators’ experiments showed just how easy it was for the
accelerator to get trapped if a RX400h floor mat was installed in
the vehicle. Bernard’s harrowing experience shows how hard it was
to free the pedal once it was stuck. The whole situation demon-
strates the risk stemming from using the wrong floor mats in a ve-
hicle, and the possibility that, despite specific directives to trained
dealer personnel, dangerous floor mats could end up in cars.
Conversely, the Saylor accident doesn’t suggest any underlying
problem with the vehicle, and certainly not with its electronics.

Dealing with Floor Mats

However, the details of the Saylor accident didn’t become available
until October 25, 2009, when the police report was completed. In
the meantime, there was only sketchy information that a Toyota
vehicle had accelerated out of the control of a trained police of-
ficer, killing four people, and that floor mats may have been in-
volved. The potential involvement of floor mats played a big role
in how the story evolved because, as noted, Toyota had issued a re-
call of all-weather floor mats for Lexus ES 350s and Toyota Cam-
rys (which share the same platform) in 2007. That recall came as a
result of five consumer complaints associated with three accidents
and one fatal accident that the National Highway Traffic Adminis-
tration (NHTSA) determined was caused by trapped accelerators.*

* U.S. Department of Transportation, “U.S. Department of Transportation
Releases Results from NHTSA-NASA Study of Unintended Acceleration in
Toyota Vehicles,” February 8, 2011; http://www.dot.gov/affairs/2011/dot1611
.html.

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