I think my dad was, at one time, a good driver. He taught me to drive, and I'm a very good driver. In the last, oh, twenty years of his driving life, however, it was an adventure, speaking kindly, to ride with him. He'd put on turn signals for no reason, slow down and speed up like a fan in a brown-out, come to a stop before driving through a tunnel on a highway, veer toward mail boxes as if they were magnets and he were iron filings. Harrowing. Unlike some -- I wonder if I'll be one -- he did come to recognize his infirmity behind the wheel before he killed himself, my mom, or anyone else, and sold his car just before we were ready to steal it from him.
In his eighties, driving downtown in Astoria, Oregon, he was delivered a glancing blow to the rear quarter panel of his car by a guy carelessly pulling out of a parking lot. Not Dad's fault. But his reaction, instead of hitting the brake, was to stand on the gas pedal, launching himself and car into a concrete abutment, breaking several ribs, turning a minor fender-bender into a potentially fatal horror.
Which is why I've always had skepticism about all those reports of sudden acceleration, be it the recent Toyota trump-up, or others before it. The just-released government inquiry confirms:
The Transportation Department, assisted by engineers with NASA, said its 10-month study of Toyota vehicles concluded there was no electronic cause of unintended high-speed acceleration in Toyotas. The study, which was launched at the request of Congress, responded to consumer complaints that flawed electronics could be the culprit behind Toyota's spate of recalls...
...NHTSA Deputy Administrator Ron Medford said that in many cases when a driver complained that the brakes were ineffective, the most likely cause was "pedal misapplication," in which the driver stepped on the accelerator instead of the brakes.
The article suggests it was a pretty rigorous study; nor does it discount the other issues of sticky pedals or entrapment by floor mats. And it includes the comments of the unconvinced.
One thing is certain, though. We'll be hearing conspiracy theories from the Foxobeckian. Toyotas, after all, are the favorite vehicles of terrorists.
