Westchester Cops Investigate Why Prius Ran Away

Photograph of the runaway Prius at the Harrison Police Department by Seth Wenig/AP

As it looks into the Tuesday's accident of a 2005 Toyota Prius somehow accelerating into a stone wall, Harrison, NY police now say that the car was on its way for maintenance at the time! The Journal News reports that even though the car seemed to operate just fine, "the owner wanted to have it checked because of all the trouble Toyota has been facing nationally over stuck gas pedals, Harrison's acting police Chief Anthony Marraccini said."

The car was being driven by the owner's housekeeper at the time of the accident.She told police that she was heading out of the driveway, the car suddenly accelerated, taking her across the road, through the shoulder and into a stone wall. The woman suffered a knee injury and the car's owner insists that the car was at fault.

Acting police Chief Marraccini, who doesn't think the accident was caused by the floor mat (because the mat was attached to the seat with ties), says Toyota won't give him access to the car's black box information (he may subpoena them for it). Additionally, he doesn't want to release the car to the company until after his department investigates, though he did say, "If there's a federal agency that I believe better equipped than we are, I'm happy to turn it over." Last month, a senior citizen in Queens blamed his Toyota accident on...Toyota.

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By Jen Chung in News on March 11, 2010 9:00 AM

Comments [rss]

ANGRYGOD11

If I lived in Westchester, I would also run very far away.

sj

While clearly Toyota is having some issues and there is a legitimate problem with some of the cars, my gut feeling about this particular incident is it's the classic "confusing the gas pedal with the brake pedal." Usually performed by old people in parking lots. Interesting that the car's owner is so insistent that the problem is with the car since the car's owner wasn't in the car and would have no knowledge of how the crash happened.

I don't think that the car would be able to override the brakes from a full stop or very low speed which would have been the case here. At highway speeds with full throttle stuck on the car could very easily overheat the brakes resulting in their inability to stop the car but that shouldn't be an issue at driveway speed.

My guess is she hit the gas, car accelerated, she panicked and, thinking she was hitting the brake, she was really pushing the gas harder. Happens all the time.

The computer record in the car will show what the situation was as it should record things like how far the throttle was applied, if the brakes were applied, etc.

Radbecca

If the accelerator gets stuck, put the car in neutral and turn the frickin' car off!

JenChungsBaby

That's not always so easy in a Prius, especially if you don't drive it all the time like this housekeeper probably didn't. The transmission is controlled by some weird little miniature knob on the dashboard that doesn't work like a regular car's does. And the ignition is push button, not just some key you can turn. You'd have to know to hold the START button down for three seconds to kill the engine, which may have been more time than it took for this accident to occur.

Politburo

If you know how to put it in drive, then you know how to put it in neutral. Alternatively if you're moving you can hit reverse or park and it'll go to N. Owner said she drove it "many times". But I agree there likely wasn't much time to react for this one.

JenChungsBaby

"Park" on 2005 a Prius isn't even on the gearshift, it's a whole separate button. I'm not sure what would happen if you pressed it while the car was moving:

http://l.yimg.com/dv/izp/toyota_prius_base_2009_interior_gearshift.jpg

And while I've driven a few no, I don't own a Prius. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

Radbecca

Hippy.

Trilby16

Mass hysteria. People are stepping on the wrong pedal.

colonelcasey

The AP certainly believes there's something fishy going on with this sudden spike in reports.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100311/ap_on_bi_ge/us_prius_panic_7