I DONT THINK THIS IS POSSIBLE FROM A FLOOR MAT. 120MPH, I MEAN COME ON. IT IS TRUELY SAD TO HEAR THIS NEWS THAT SOME ONE DIED AS A RESULT.

In my car there’s a good amount of space between the bottom of the gas pedal and the floor. I just don’t see how a floor mat could have held down the gas pedal.

The guy was a freakin highway patrol cop!! Don’t they train these folks how to handle a vehicle at all? He should have popped it into neutral and let the engine blow- not pick up the phone and call 911. The brakes were responding, but the engine will easily overpower the brakes in ANY car where the accelerator is floored.

Accidents like this are why the Darwin Awards were created.

as a mechanic I seen guys who had accident with the same floor mat incident it even happen to me most people replace or put aftermarket floor mat that’s not the correct side and it moves.

Something is wrong with this story…something missing

I do not quite understand how the car got up to 120MPH. How fast were they going before realizing they could not stop and where were they driving? I only see an floormat causing issues with the pedals if its covering them. How do they cause the accelerator to become stuck? There should and will be a complete investagation I am sure. Not only for Toyota/Lexus, but on the behalf of all brands. This tragedy could happen in any car. My condolences to the families.

depending if the floor mat had a roll/ was flipped up because it was too long could easy bee enough to hold the gas down
if he was clear headed enough to get out a phone and call the police, he should have been able to think (especially being a cop himself), put the car in neutral and coast, slowly applying the parking break.

i guess its easy to suggest what should have been done, but who knows what the actual circumstances were at the time

hummah is so right, i wear big shoes and some cars the gas pedal and brake is close and sometimes on some cars i press them both by accident not only that but the under-guard under the steering comes down and prevent u from braking , I seen alot of case where this happend

the gas pedal can never get stuck on a 09 lexus its all wireless and it has 3 back up fail safe sensor if all 3 do not read the right input it will just slow down

Gas Pedal on my girlfriend’s hyundai gets stuck on the floor mat and you have to push up on it to get it to pop loose… fortunately it’s a 98 4 cyl tiburon so there’s PLENTY of time to consider your options before you get up to any substantial speed. that being said, I could absolutely see this happening!!! It’s easy to say what could or should have been done now, but in the situation it may not have been so easy.

i really do think something fishy is going down, how many problems can one company have with just floormats. and 120 and a cop something not right!!!!!

Uhhh . . . the Volvos my family has driven have mats that have locks (for the carpet mats OR the plastic tray mats). I thought most cars had that feature. Wouldn’t that correct most of this? That said, there have still been times where my foot has somehow slipped off the accelerator and become jammed under it. It’s never created a problem, but there’s that split-second of “Oh crap!”

p.s. I can totally see how a mat would jam an accelerator . . . if it gets wedge up in the slots that the pedal passes through, it could create just enough friction that the pedal can’t come out without yanking out really hard on the accelerator . . . if you can reach it and if it’s not utterly jammed in there.

Floormats jamming accelerator pedals is very common…..especially the people that buy those cheap ass “one size fits some” rubber mats from Wal-Mart, Shucks, etc….

Lexus is crap, sh1t like this proves my point.

This would never happen with a Buick. GM doesn’t settle for inferior parts for their vehicles like Imports do.

People are waking up fast. Toyota and lexus are going down. Victims of the American Revolution.

Be American. Buy American. Buy GM. You’ll be better off for it.

can you not put a Lexus in neutral when driving it and or turn the engine off by taking out the key, and hit the e-brake once the engine is off?

I could see a driver being unfamiliar with a start-button system (as opposed to a conventional key) if this was a loaner car. His first instinct might have been to turn off the ignition, but how to do that might not have been obvious with a keyless system and other distractions. Why he couldn’t have shifted to neutral or even into reverse is another question.

Several news stories report that other drivers saw flames coming from the wheels as the car was being driven at high speed, suggesting that the brakes were applied to the point of overheating and presumably complete failure.

Bizarre and tragic.

Shut up NMOFGM….you are an idiot. This has nothing to do with Toyota sucks and GM is god. The loaner cars dealer is at fault for putting a mismatched floormat from another Lexus into this ES. It’s not “inferior” as you state but rather the wrong shape and size for an ES

worst 3 – Yep, you can. Sadly, most Americans would prefer to panic and blame someone else rather than to be prepared to react. The fact that the car reached 120 mph says to me that the operator just didn’t have the enough defensive driving training to respond correctly. Sad.

Oh, and Oily, accidents involving GM products (esp SUVs) eclipse accidents of other companies in the US. Sound to me more like the French Revolution. Off with their heads, figuritively speaking (on second thought, with GM, that might be literal).

ORLY, THis has much to do with another one of Toyotas quality failures right here. The brakes failed and the accelerator was stuck. Yup, that’s japcrap quality for ya!

Never ceases to amaze me how many of you ignorant focks defend crap like Toyota. Amazing.

Remember, crap like this WILL NOT HAPPEN in a GM vehicle. If the driver wasn’t an idiot for renting a low quality POS like a Toyota Lexass, he might still be alive today instead of being stuck with a car that kills people.

Be American. Buy American. Buy GM.

The Miami Herald reported that the driver was a 19 yr veteran of the CHP. Do you suppose that possibly this man was had more than a passing knowledge of vehicles, and possibly he exhausted all options available to him? Bear in mind that he was in a brand new loaner vehicle while his own car was getting serviced.

NMOFG, I hope you’re kidding, dude. Cause if not, you sound like a total ‘tard.

NMOFGM, stop the game, again, or you’ll start believing what you say.

Tragedy here

I don’t own a BMW so the only ‘tard is you.

GM. An American Revlution

To 1115, if you’re still alive and have recovered from the airbag shrapnel, yes, floormats CAN be a serious safety recall.

To Hummah, my Quest has a 240 hp V6, but it cannot overpower the brakes. My brakes are really strong, and give my 4,400 lb. behemoth a lot of stopping power. If I leave the e-brake on, I don’t go anywhere, even at full throttle.

To everyone else, apparently, this guy hadn’t enough sense to turn the key and shut the damn thing off. But if he’s freaking out, maybe his head didn’t remain cool and he honestly didn’t know what to do. We never know what we will do in these types of situations. I can say now that I would turn the key, but I might not turn the key if it really happens.

Also, to everyone else, I’ve participated in Police Chase Training as a media person, and I can tell you that very few of these guys are really good drivers, even after their training. The officer I was doing the story on was using underhand steering, and was not turning his head through corners. When I had the chance to drive the police cruiser, my lap time was far better than any of the 50 officers that day, and I was just a rookie on the track at that time.

My condolences to this family. Very sad.

Driving is a full time job.

@bmwmpower. Yes, I agree. If he’s not kidding, that mean he’s a tard. There is no problem with the car brand.

nmofgm

normally i ignore your stupid ****ing statements but you didn’t read the article: “Investigators with the NHTSA say the car, which was a loaner from a dealership, had a driver’s side rubber all-weather that was too long. It was from a model other than the ES.”

in other words, it didn’t have the proper mat, which was likely an error of the dealer, and not the manufacturer, and this could very well happen in a gm vehicle…

i know you won’t stop being a trolling ****bag douchenozzle tool **** prick on this board, even when people argue at you with common sense, but you really deserve to be beaten savagely for the constant spewing of bull**** you do here…

and now i’ll go back to ignoring you and hoping you get banned…toodles…

Wouldn’t the floor mat be the first thing you’d check under those circumstances? As in it’s usually something obvious. The guy has time to make a phone call but he doesn’t have time reach to the floor and give the thing a good tug to see if it’s caught on something?

I’m with hummah- this sounds like classic Darwin.

The Floor mats getting bunched up under the pedals and even folded over the Accelerator are not unheard over. Though bunching up under the brake is a more common issue. Many cars have hooks to hold the mats in place, usually just under the seats. It not only keeps the mats looking nice and neat but prevents the bunching up issue. Mostly, I’ve seen this in most FOMOCO vehicles. But you will find it the GMs and some European cars. I don’t frequent Japanese and S.Korean vehicles so I don’t know much on them.

A sticking accelerator is a tragic failure and it should not be overlooked that people actually did die. However simply killing the engine and/or putting the car in neutral would have saved their lives. More than that car itself. In this case, it was human error more than any mechanical fault to blame for this.

bmwmpower,

NMOFG is a hardcore Detroit booster, mainly for GM, as best I can tell. He may be badly overplaying his character here. It is recommended that you do not respond to him unless you really know what you are doing.

Sorry, I didn’t notice it was a push button, but still, my statement that his head may not have been cool enough to remember what to do stands. We never know what will happen when we are in their shoes.

And this guy is a CHP? Didn’t he know to put the shifter to ‘N’??? Aren’t they trained in extreme driving and all that? Even my mom knows to put it in ‘N’! What an idiot!!! Something about this doesn’t sound right? He has the time to make a call but no time to turn the car off or put it in ‘N’. I mean it definitely sucks for the rest of the family!

I can’t be the only one on here who thinks this story dosn’t add up??!!??!! Can I?? As I know it, the brakes do work while the accelerator is pressed. Wouldn’t it have been obvious to the driver if the floor mat was pushing the pedal in? I mean, just because you have a shoe on doesn’t mean you can tell that the this is pressed in! If you have the time to call the police, why wouldn’t the have the time to shift the car into neutral? Or can you not without fully engaging the brakes…brakes lexus has a gated automatic shifter. It’s sad that a whole family had to go through this…

And for NMOFGM,
You are the dumbest mother F-er alive, shut the fnck up! I’m just tired of reading your bullsh!t!

I heard about this story when it first happened as I live very near the accident scene, and travel by there often. It was an absolutely horrible and tragic event that took several lives including an innocent young girl.

As for the cause, I guess we will never really truly know for sure, but I will say I drove the scene to try and re-enact it and see what it would have been like and I simply can’t see how in the amount of time they had how they couldn’t have fixed a floor mat…

Comment, Dr Fill? No?

I’m surprised…
A proper engineered car should stop the engine when both Brake pedal and the gas is pressed. At least german and italian cars have this feature…

Very very sad. My heart goes out to the families involved. I see this tragic stuff all the time in my job.
The story and cause do not seem to add up to me. I’m sure the manufact will spend several mil proving it wasn’t possible anyway.

I agree this story doesn’t add up, or the cop is a complete idiot. He had time to make a phone call, but no time to try the obvious??? Checking the floor mats sounds like a no-brainer, but even he didn’t have time to think of that, the could have down other things to slow down or stop. Ever heard of an e-brake? Also shifting into neutral on the fly should work in any car no matter what (unless the tranny is blown…which is obviously not the case if he was going 120mph!) I just don’t understand…

My mom’s jaguar xj8 had fault brakes, took too long to stop. I took her car to mechanic, who showed me how the floor mat was stuck behind the brake pedal. No brake work was need. In the story above, the driver probably panicked too much. “hold the starter button for 3 seconds” I didn’t know about that, a lot of cars have them now. What about turning the keys off?

Sorry it wasn’t brakes but accelerator, car was too slow in our Jaguar XJ8. Sometimes you have a simple reason for a complex problem. In car rental business, a lot of times people would say that a car won’t start, and all it was that the gear would be in neutral instead of park. Real sorry for the families, a tragedy.

05Z88, considering he bought a Lexus in the first place, we can probably agree that he was indeed an idiot.

and stang67 – cars that come with starter buttons dont have ignitions that you turn, the key fob stays in your pocket.

@idrinorbarsaku

Your not the only one. There is something not right about this story.
19yrs as a CHP. He has to have some experiance.
toyota is already in some hot water with the roll over cases they got against them right now.
They got rid of evidence in those cases to save there own a$$.
I’m not saying that a floor mat is not to blame, but seriously how many of us have had something close to this floor mat situation happen to us and never got the car up to 120MPH.
We are all still alive, and I’m also willing to bet that most of us don’t have 19 yrs experiance driving. Doing a job where I spend almost 8 hour of my day in a car.

It just dosen’t add up.

toyota needs to find the problem, and if they are to blame they better come clean.

This story made my heart jump. About 10 years ago I had a 1989 Maxima which I had repaired. The mechanic screwed something up which caused my accelerator to get stuck on the highway. The brakes didn’t work and I thought I was dead. After a about 7 seconds I shifted the car into neutral and slowly managed my way off the highway avoiding the other cars. I think if I didn’t do this I would probably of ended up like the people described in this story.

I sold Fords almost straight out of high school for a year. My demo was a 1981 Mustang 3.3 5 spd. One morning on the highway on my way to work the accelerator stuck to the floor. Now granted that old inline 6 probably only huffed out about 120 horse but I was able to maintain my speed with brake pressure while I reached all the way to the pedal and freed it with my hand.

And I also distinctly remember checking the floor mat first.

someone , please ban NMOFGM again. i had a friend who had the same problem , but it was a manual car , so it wasn’t a big deal.

volo,
not true, if your statement were true, then how would you explain the burnouts and such where you need to press the gas and brakes at the same time.

Caddy-V
It just doesn’t make sense! I’ve had occasions where the mat would go over the gas pedal, and it I noticed it before it did anything because it’s something you should be able to notice when the gas pedal doesn’t rebound all the way, but It’s unimaginable to think of how hard the mat must have been shoved into the pedal for it to be uncontrollable! The only I think this could have happened is if something happened to the actual car, and the people thought it was the mat.

NMOFGM…..just remember, GM went bankrupt…Toyota didnt.

GM also lost several brands in the mayhem…(hee hee)

gee, i didnt know awesome companies go bankrupt….?

A couple of people should be newly unemployed today, I hope
Sounds like a dealer ran out of mats for the ES, and whoever was servicing the car put in a mat not made for that car instead, causing this mishap

Having driven hundreds of cars, I’ve had mats that would interfere with the pedals once or twice
It was always noticable and correctable to me
But some floor mats are very heavy, and will not move in a well-carpeted interior once placed, unless you stop the car, get out, and remove the mat

A tragedy
DrFill

What were you driving 200 km an hour for??!!

Don’t blame it on the Lexus… blame it on the off duty stupid cop…..

looks like samintosh didn’t even read the article!

WE NEED TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT HERE. The driver – the Highway Patrol officer – DID NOT MAKE THE 911 CALL. ABC News played the call… It was HIS BROTHER IN-LAW WHO MADE THE CALL.

All of you who put blame on the deceased driver for showing no judgment (”He had time to make a cell phone call but couldn’t stop the vehicle???) should get back onto this site and apologize.

And I agree with those who said “We weren’t there. We can’t know what REALLY happened.”

I liked when GM was bankrupt and NMOFGM was silenced. Though emerging from bankruptcy with government aid isn’t something to be proud of, either. Stop posting here, you’re ignorant and unwanted and all-around a useless waste of space. Show some respect for these people instead of promoting your beloved weak GM.

@beemerdude,

Thanks. I was just going to post that.

@NMOFGM bashers (all of you),

Welcome to free speech. We all have to tolerate what everyone says, no matter if we disagree.

Rest in peace…

now that is some great lexus engineering. you can wreck the car if the floor mats are mismatched.
i wonder if the driver was over 75 years of age which is the majority of lexus owners.
maybe lexus will have an oxygen tank option like the old cadillacs and lincolns.

iIt really does not matter what car it is, this could happen to anybody. I would like to see one of you try to stop an out of control 2 ton car, with brakes malfunctioning, an unfamiliar setup, and 3 people screaming at you, all while going 120 mph out of control. Almost everybody would freeze up in this situation, especially with a moderately fast car like the ES. My consolations go out to what is left of this guy’s family, and i just don’t think he had the time to think straight, and figure out how the car was set up. This is one reason to put big Brembo brakes on your car, anybody remember that article (manufacturers thinking about putting high performance brakes on slower cars).

P.S. my guess is that the car can’t be shifted into reverse because it would wreck something, doing that, or pulling the e-brake would just send you out of control.

This is just a sad accident, and we should all hope it does not happen again.

To all of you who blame the driver of the car — SHAME ON YOU! You were not there and do not know exactly what happened. To blame someone who tried to save his family and himself but failed, that is absolutely ridiculous and disrespectful to 4 people who have lost their lives and their families.

To be in a car that you dont own and have never driven in your life and be accelerating at 120 mph for no apparent reason, I dont blame him for panicking. Im sure may of you would too

How many of you have been driving a 2009 ES on the highway and have the floor mat get stuck and the car accelerate at full speed and have no idea what is going on and have 3 people yelling at you to stop the car and cant and be panicking and having to dodge traffic and keep the car relatively in control all at the same time?

Exactly —- none

Dont make accusations without knowing exactly what happened.

To all of you who need to apologize to Saylor’s and Lastrella’s families, I expect you to do it.

Learn some respect.

aggie531. This is directed towards you. What is respect?

“Dont make accusations without knowing exactly what happened.”
(Quote – aggie531)

Then what did happen? Your demanding some of my fellow LeftLaners to apologize to the family, when it sounds like your not even sure what exactly happened…

And to be honest, accusations or not. I bet those magical floor mats where apart of a cruel demented plan to end the lives of those who died in this article.

Its a shame, truly is. I just hope the po-po don’t autozone swap out there floor mats in there new commodores. I wish I had the right to purchase vehicles like that here in the US.

I live in San Diego where this tragedy happened.

The LLN article is misleading in that it states that Saylor indicated the vehicles brakes were not responding…etc. The article infers Saylor (the driver) made the 911 call while driving.

Local media has reported for the last few days that a passenger in the car made the 911 phone call. The brother-in-law was talking to the 911 dispatcher as the car approached the end of the freeway.

The car literally ran out of freeway room, could not negotiate a sharp curve, clipped the rear of a Ford Explorer and then went airborne.

hfry
and you still need to apologize

just being funny here…no wonder why i do not like any toyota/lexus products…sheesh! O_o

The wrong set of circumstances and ANY vehicle’s accelerator pedal can be jammed wide open by a foreign object that finds its way up into the pedal box – and/or block the brake pedal. An ill-fitting floor mat can do it, which is probably why every vehicle manual I can remember reading included an instruction to not use third-party mats. It’s been known to happen from items rolling free in the cabin, or even intruding from the engine bay – dirt, rats, snakes, etc. Very rare, but has been known to happen.

Not easy to maintain the presence of mind to shift into neutral, let the engine scream to the redline and beyond, and make use of whatever might be available from the parking brake or available space. Which might not be enough, anyway.

Switch off the engine?? I’ve experienced an engine failiure at 120mph, in Europe, and I can assure you that the loss of power steering and brakes made the journey to the shoulder a lot more exciting. I can see how that could, itself, lead to a crash.
Shift into Park?? Not over 20mph you don’t, or it’s off the road you go, probably end-over-end.
Shift into Reverse?? Even worse consequences than shifting into Park. Often seen on the idiot box, but IRL it’s done by locking the wheels (if you can figure out how to defeat the ABS, in the heat of the moment), shifting into R, and waiting for the vehicle to come to a stop (or nearly) before reversing away from an assailant.

Those cars are overpriced Camrys.

If the car has the hand break like the old cars does, I am very sure that they will not die!

Actually I have a question….why would he has the time to find the phone and dialed 911…and not to try to remove the floor mat??? And…his wife (I assumed she sat next to him) could actually reach to the floor to pull the mat out if he was not able to.

Does anyone else find it strange that this is happening with a lot of Toyota products lately, and even someone with a fair amount of emergency experience ends up being the victim? I’m starting to think its more than floormats, but a badly designed accelerator pedal.

Sorry, but I’ve NEVER had a floormat stick for more than a second or so. This is a defect in the accelerator pedal itself, not the mats. Of course, Toyota will never admit to that.

New cars, now-a-days, don’t disable the transmission gears, while driving, to shift into reverse or park! You can be driving and put it into reverse and it would do nothing! This does not apply to manuals though…which this lexus doesn’t even offer. Slamming it into revers or park would be as useless as slamming the accelerator even more!

I happen to believe, that unless you were trained for such an instance…cop maybe…. you would probably be stressed out to think calmly in this instance. Kind of like fighting, you disregard the obvious and who’s around you, but focus on the person in front of you. Testosterone! Makes you focus straight while making plans as simple as possible…disregarding the fat that the mat might be pulled away(if it really was the mat and not a car fault). We’ll probably not know for some time as to what really happened, but while we wait, I think we should give this a rest, and just pray for the rest of their family members!

I find it funny that everyone is obsessing over the make of the car and not even bothering to ask the obvious questions: Was this guy drunk/stoned? Or did he just suck at life? I mean, sure it’s sad or whatever that his family had to die with him, but it’s hard to believe this story can all be blamed on a floor mat.

Floor mats kill because they hate.

If the computer survived the crash, the data recorder inside it will show what was going on. Were the brakes being applied, what gear was it in, rpm’s, accellerator position. Sound very hard to believe that the brakes were not applied enough to overcome the accelerated engine. Very tragic indeed. Such stories like this are just hard to believe, but end up true in the end. The neutral shifter position is the easiest thing to do when in a panic..hopefully the computer survived so we can get the story as told by electronics not speculators. So sad.

does anyone remeber audi back in the 80’s ? it was the audi 5000 that would lunge forward due to either driver error or the error of the car. we now have to put our foot on the break pedal before shifting into drive because of that issue.
this audi issue soon almost put a total hault to sales in the u.s.. could this be the beginning of the end for lexus? has this happened before to a lexus? i really don’t think it has. but, who knows this could be an issue of lexus not thinking or cheap engineering. toyota has been having more and more issues with there cars. i have a friend that was a service manager at a lexus dealer. he has always said that lexus makes good cars. but, they used to be a lot better. little things are breaking on them now that would have never broken 10 years ago. he has actually said that he sometimes feels he used to feel that he was working at a vw dealer.

@hummah

The gas can never overpower the brakes. Can’t happen

Please read the story before commenting.

“left the driver, off-duty California Highway Patrol Officer” – the driver was a cop.

“with Saylor’s passenger indicating the vehicle’s brakes were not responding and the accelerator was stuck” – the driver DID NOT MAKE THE CALL!

And it’s apparent that the brakes were being applied.

“which was a loaner from a dealership” – it wasn’t his car, and he wasn’t familiar with it.

” the car involved in the crash was not equipped with these mats, but rather mats from another car.” – unless the Toyota company installed mats from another car, Toyota company is not to blame.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: None of us know exactly what we would do in the same situation. Don’t judge.

Rest in peace.

In this incident there had to be other things going on in that car, his whole family was in a car going over 120mph did anybody mention domestic issues?, I been that fast and it takes a lot of concentation and effort from the driver to get to that speed, even if you cant stop you dont wait till you get over 100mph then try to figure out how to stop, this off duty cop knew how to throw this car in neutral, from drive but didnt, why didnt he stop this car? why did he kill his self and family? Toyota has sold if not all their automatics to be thrown into neutral if all else fails. they are just an auto manufacturer they cant actually drive the cars for us, and excercise good judgement my verdict: this guy was and over stressd cop who has been chasing people down on the highway for 19 years, probably typical family domestic issues all came togther for this unfortunate event, Toyota and dealer shouldn’t have nothing to worry about, good judgement was not excercised to safely save this family. my condolenses

This may be in poor taste but who’s going to sue me.

There’s a plug for a comedy show up here where a lady’s in her car after being pulled over by a police officer and he’s standing outside her window.
The officer asks ‘do you know why I pulled you over?’
She replies ‘…because you got all Cs in high school?’

I guess the thought of bumping the shifter up into NEUTRAL never occurred to the driver. It won’t go if it ain’t in drive people.

Rodeo40, a car can overpower the brakes. If it is a vacuum assist power brake system, it runs off of engine manifold vacuum. The problem is an engine doesn’t provide any or little if the throttle is open near all the way. So once you hit the brakes a couple of times and the vacuum in the booster is gone, thats it, no more power brakes. And if you ad that to brakes that are hot and fading, you will not be able to overpower the engine.

On the other hand, he should have put it in nuetral as others have said. What a retard.

@idrinorbarsaku:
I am an ECU engineer and this feature is there (at least in the european car company I work for), I can assure you. If your gas pedal is stuck, you lift of your foot and press the brake, after a few seconds the engine will stop the fuel injection. But, don’t touch the gas pedal or the ECU will decide that the brake is faulty instead of the gas pedal and it will inject again

ha yes, it is only valid for a car which does not have the gas pedal mechanically llinked to the throttle valve (as this lexus)

i have to say i love NMOFGM he makes my day. He gets on everybodys nerves and he knows it. maybe u guys should idk……ignore him?

Check out http://www.autocoverup.com. This is not a “new” issue for Toyota/Lexus. Lot’s of others have had this same issue. Sad it’s going to take this for anything to get done.

All of you that are playing armchair quarterback about what the driver did or didn’t do should be ashamed. RIP Saylor family and Chris Lastrella.

UNBELIEVABLE. Some of the comments here really turned my stomach. None of us were there… at that moment… yet sitting in the comfort of our chairs and at our computers (or phones) we are quick to blame.

One writer says it was all about a “domestic family dispute.”

Many others said “there was no way the brakes would not have stopped that vehicle.”

A guy writes “they should have reached down and pulled the mat.” While the vehicle is going 120 mph and you are desperately trying to control it? (Assuming they even knew that it was the mat causing all of this?)

Yeah, right…

Another said “couldn’t have been about a floor mat getting caught with the gas pedal. Must be about a lot of other mechanical problems with Toyota/Lexus.

LOOK… None of us know what really happened. IT IS UNFAIR to the deceased to think we do. For all we know, the driver DID put the vehicle in neutral but there was no braking left.

Many of you are WAY out of line here. I’m sickened by your disrespect toward the victims of this horrible tragedy.

You think I’m overstating this? Could’ve been you or your family in that car.

Think about it.

second that beemeerdude, thnx

RIP

Murder-suicide.

@Beemerdude

Well said man.

volo,
Who do you work for that would make you not want to write it in your comment? If your statement is true, the awesome powerslides, (real) donuts, and burnouts wouldn’t be possible! I have never heard of such a thing that you speak of! Must be a feature only in your “european” cars.

This is a good reason why unconventional ignition switches should be banned. Should be DOT law that every car should have a standard key operated turn-switch either on the right side of the steering column or on the dash to the right of the steering column. Ban buttons, and switches in odd places like on the dash to the left of the column (Rolls Royce used to have this), or between the seats (Saab).

@beatusmongous……it’s not about judging…it’s about common sense. Do you think people should sue over the car company because he flipped his SUV while he was doing 60mph in a 45mph turn???…similar thing…instead of finding a way to stop the car, he called 911…..did we all know that it’s dangerous to drive and talk (text) on the cell phone at the same time??? Come on…where is the common sense???

even if all the scenarios above are false, I bet you would agree that most people love to abuse the rental or loaner car in many ways.

elviososa, his wife called 911 smarty

Elvio, read the article, and then read all of my comments before passing judgement on the driver. The driver DID NOT make the call. I repeat: THE DRIVER DID NOT MAKE THE CALL. In fact, someone else actually cited that it was the brother-in-law that made the call.

“instead of finding a way to stop the car,” – The brakes were not responding, probably because they had already fried.. He tried to find a way, and failed.

“even if all the scenarios above are false” – All of your above scenarios are false according to what is written in the article. Read it again and read it thoroughly. Reading the headline does not count as reading the article.

Don’t talk about common sense until you get some of your own. Until then. don’t judge.

@ beastusmongous Very well said. Thanks for helping me bring some sanity and common sense to the comments being posted on this site.

Some of them are WAY out of line. And most troubling – they are making false accusations.

Amazing how people will read the very same article … and see only what they want to see.

I have to admit, Beemerdude, that the first time I read it, I missed the fact that it was a push-button starter. When I caught that, I corrected myself.

And thanks to you, as well. There are a few others, too.

Again.

Reach out… grab shifter… PUT IT IN NEUTRAL… brake safely to a stop.

How hard is this?

RaineMan, that is probably the only part that doesn’t make much sense, since it’s easy to us. However, I’ve asked several people who are not enthusiasts like we are, and none of them, including my wife, even thought about putting the car in neutral. I wonder how many of us, when our hearts are racing and our heads are trying to figure things out, would even think about putting the car in neutral. I’m sure most of us would, but I’m also sure some of us would only be able to think: “What in holy hell is going on?” It could be like the same panic that sweeps over you when they forget to put ketchup in the bag for your hot and tasty french fries.

I’m a former Master Toyota technician that worked at a Lexus dealership for 5 years, this can and does happen, the real problem is the gas pedall is free hanging from the firewall unlike in a Mercedes that is hinged from the floor. When the gas pedal is free hanging anything can get under it and jam the gas pedal, especially a floor mat. Just Googls gas pedla sticks Lexus and you will see other complaints. If the gas pedal was hinged on the floor this would not have happened…

I was at lexus with my a couple of people, and this discussion over the gas pedal came up. Apparently, they are doing test all day and night to see what could have caused this to happen. They came up with the conclusion while a lexus es350 was on a dyno. Lexus, almost all of the dealers, when they have a lexus rental, the put the ORIGINAL floor mats upside down to protect them from getting dirty! The top part, which is now facing down, has no place to anchor, and when you put an all weather mats on top, which is very grippy, it was very easy to move both of the mats around within the area of the gas/brake pedal! They also said that it was impossible to try and get the mat to make the pedal stick without forcefully trying, which was VERY noticeable because the mat would curve around the pedal.

WATERACER,
WTF are you talking about? There wouldn’t be this problem if something got stuck under the gas pedal! IT GOT STUCK ON TOP OF THE GAS PEDAL, pushing the gas!!! This problem is worse for cars that have the gas pedal hinged at the bottom at the foot rest area! I honestly don’t even know what you’re talking about!

A similar incident happened with my mom this July.. She was driving on interstate 15 near Barstow, CA when her 2006 Lexus GS suddenly accelerated for no reason… she recalled not being able to slow down her car either as she stomped on the brakes… she was by herself and fortunately she walked away from the accident with only minor injuries…she said she was well over 100 mph, and started to panic when the brakes didn’t respond the only thing she could do was turn on her hazards and then directed her vehicle to center divider… she crashed against it and eventually she was able to slow her car down…there were other cars that inadvertently crashed into each other trying to avoid her… the car was completely totaled, but god was with her and the other drivers.. no one was seriously hurt…she said the paramedics were astonished she wasn’t killed in the accident

She didn’t say anything about floor mats though after the accident.. however a few weeks before she had her car repaired at Jim Faulk Lexus for a mfg recall, it took about 3 days for the recall work…she suspects a possibly malfunction from repair

Why didn’t she put her car in neutral?

Most likely because she didn’t think about it.

Wouldn’t have downshifting out of Drive to a lower gear at least slowed the car down even if it was redlining?

You have to be kidding that floor mats took their lives? Give me a break ! !! speaking of no response from his brakes, how about the emergency brake or do the jap crap Lexus even come with this feature, what training did this guy go thru???? We recently got rid of a JAP CRAP Lexus that my girlfriend had and she is so glad its gone nothing beats German cars ! ! ! one more thing did he even think that turning off the ignition mught do something or jam the shifter into PARK or just try something besides making a call