How To Stop Your Runaway Car

Consumer Reports Shares Important Safety Tip

The past few days the automotive news world has been dominated by one story: Toyota’s massive recall involving nearly five million vehicles in the North American market alone.

Colossal Recall

This unprecedented recall and related sales stoppage is sending shockwaves through the industry, but perhaps most stunning of all is the way that Toyota is handling or should I say mishandling the crisis (see The Auto Writer: Toyota Calamity Presents Fresh Opportunity For Rivals).

Toyota is trying to look like the hero by not selling cars on their lots which could have a defective gas pedal, floor mats, or both. But, evidence is coming forth that Toyota knew about this problem as far back as 2004 and only took action when the heat was turned up on them.

Emergency Stopping

ABC News has been at the forefront of exposing what is going behind the Toyota wall of secrecy when it comes to the problem. They also have hooked up with Consumer Reports in a bid to show Toyota owners a way for them to stop their cars.

The video above is updated from one released last November, but your best response in the event that your car careens out of control is to slam on the brakes and shift the transmission into neutral.

Pumping the brakes can cause you to lose braking while turning off the ignition may lock up your steering. You need control over your brakes and your steering when you are faced with an emergency situation.

Contact Toyota

Toyota has offered little guidance to customers to date on what their remedy will be for recalling and fixing affected vehicles.  What the Japanese automaker is saying customers who have any questions or have experienced any issues with their accelerator pedals should visit Toyota.com, contact the Toyota Customer Experience Center at 1-800-331-4331, or call their local Toyota dealer.

Your dealer, however, may not be able to give you a definitive answer right now which means you need to decide if you are comfortable with driving your Toyota, Lexus, or Scion vehicle.

In any case, studying the video can give you some tips on how to maintain control of your car in the event, God forbid, it suddenly lurches out of control.  Safe driving!

Resources

Toyota: Latest News About Toyota’s Safety Recall Campaign

Safety Research and Strategies: So, Who Called Toyota?

While Toyota Flounders, GM Delivers A Fresh Kick

Nifty Idea: Inflatable Seat Belts!

I like this new safety feature from Ford: offer customers inflatable seat belts to protect rear occupants who don’t have the benefit of an air bag to protect them in a frontal crash. Sure, many cars now come with side curtain air bags, but when it comes to a head on collision, rear seating passengers don’t have all the protection that they need.

Ford Safety Innovation Laboratory-Dean Jaradi, Advance Research Engineer of the inflatable belt, Ford Motor Company, speaks to media as Ford introduces the auto industry's first-ever production inflatable seat belts, which are designed to provide additional protection for rear-seat occupants.

Well, buyers of the next generation Ford Explorer — due out next year — will find that they’ll have one more reason why to consider Ford when shopping for a sport utility vehicle. That vehicle will include the new feature which Ford says will protect occupants including small children who are most vulnerable in an accident.

Crash test dummies, large and small, get to prove that Ford's inflatable seat belts are a smart idea for families. The all new safety feature debuts with the next generation Ford Explorer next year.

“Ford is pioneering inflatable seat belt technology to help enhance crash safety protection, while encouraging more people to buckle up with a more comfortable belt,” said Paul Mascarenas, Ford vice president, Engineering, Global Product Development.

Ford Explorer

Speaking of the Ford Explorer, the next generation model will be a clean departure from the current model. Instead of residing on a truck chassis, the Explorer will be underpinned by a car chassis. Thus, the 2011 Explorer will probably lose its SUV designation in favor of CUV — crossover utility vehicle.

Autoblog and some other sites have published spy photos of the next generation Explorer which give the vehicle a more wagon-like appearance, more rounded than the squared off Flex.

Source: Ford Motor Company