While the people who survived sudden acceleration have reported pretty much the same story since the late 1980s, no one in Washington seems to be paying much attention.
More than 20,000 consumers have complained to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of sudden acceleration since the
1980s when vehicles began using an increasing number of electronic-based controls.Terri Moore from Seattle is one of the most recent. ?I am yet another victim of sudden acceleration,? she writes. ?My Saturn Vue was parked in a parking lot. I entered the car, turned on the ignition and put the car in reverse. The car rocketed backward and hit a pole.?
After Terri?s Saturn slammed into the telephone poll behind her, she said that she ?put the car in drive to inch away from the pole I was wrapped around and the car rocketed forward, out of control.?
?This is insane,? Terri concluded.
The Federal agency charged with investigating the problem is NHTSA.
NHTSA has concluded in many previous cases that most incidents of sudden acceleration are caused not by vehicle defects but by drivers' errors. Drivers mistakenly stomp on gas pedals instead of the brakes.
Terri Moore is unimpressed with NHTSA?s sudden acceleration track record.
?The research I have done indicates the NHTSA cannot recreate the problem,? she wrote. ?So NHTSA has concluded there is no problem. In the meanwhile, people are getting injured and killed.?
Several years ago, NHTSA launched a preliminary investigation of sudden acceleration involving Toyota automobiles after receiving reports of 30 accidents, including one in which a pedestrian was injured.
Last year, the agency reported that it was unable to find a cause for the problem. NHTSA said it analyzed many of the cars involved in the mishaps and found nothing abnormal with the throttle controls. Once again NHTSA pointed to the driver. The agency said sudden surges are sometimes caused by drivers who are unfamiliar with their new vehicles.
That sort of brush off has Terri Moore seeing red. ?I am not too young to know better or too old to confuse the gas from the brake,? she said. Terri continues to look for a lawyer in Seattle who understands sudden acceleration. No one else seems to be paying a lot of attention.
?I have a 100,000-mile warranty on my car. So I am stuck with a car with
9,500 miles on it. I owe $20,000 on the contract and I am afraid to get in it and drive for fear of killing someone or myself.?Ross of West Hollywood has a similar problem with his 2001 Ford Expedition, and has gotten a similar shrug from the dealer.
"The car, When stopped at an intersection or stoplight, will without warning, feed a unprecedented amount of gas to the engine ... The car jumps forward like a bull waiting to get out of the gates. I have my foot on the brake when this happens so I know I am not stepping on the gas. Even with my foot on the brake, the power of the engine dominates the brakes and the car jumps forward anywhere from 1 to 10 feet," Ross said.
"The fourth time it happened was severe and the car almost hit a much smaller car in front of me. If I hit them, they could have hit the pedestrians in front of them. I had a passenger and after this occured he insisted on getting out of the car and would not ride with me again in that car," he said.
Ross said the dealer could find nothing wrong. "They do not seemed concerned that they are forcing a dangerous car back on the road. They only seemed concerned with their payment and giving me back the car."