How can people die in these Toyota tragedies?

Fattyfive

Can these people that are driving these toyota vehicles and the accelerator sticks and keeps going faster, cant they just turn the key off or what. Once you turn the key off the motor usually stops, am i missing something here or what. I really need an answer to this, i just dont get how people could end up crashing and dieing, or could they not take it out of gear and put it in park from drive to neutrol.

Steven M

If you turn off the engine the steering usually locks and brakes go too. The only reason why these people died is because they panicked and didn't know what to do. Get on the brakes, DON'T PUMP THEM, put the car in neutral, steer to safety and turn the car off.































http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=8980024

Karle

most of the cars have the push button start/turnoff...not just a key...... but i agree with u the accidents while partly toyotas fault actually lies with the drivers panicking.......































they could shift the car to neutral...will blow the motor but not kill anyone......also could slam it into park and turn off the car...the parking pin would just shear at those speeds but would again take it out of drive and then would b able to push the off button...































also their was a guy on tv today that got his to stop form going 90mph by using both the parking and regular brakes......































not to mention on a freeway u would have the option to sideswipe a guard rail....which would slow the vehicle down......or even rear end another vehicle....wile still dangerous it would b less than hitting a parked car or a wall or other stationary object....















































also the person that had time to call police would have most likely had enough time to start pulling fuses...one of which would have been to the fuel pump or engine.....ect...

Travis

Keeping in mind that a lot of people, when put in a frightening position like that lose all ability to reason. Turning the car off would cut power to the power steering and brakes so neither I or Toyota recommend it. Keeping the car on and putting it in neutral then coasting it to a stop is the safest bet. Going to the Park gear while at motion will severely damage the transmission.

Dustin

The only real solution is for Toyota to come clean and fix them, properly, once and for all, before more people get killed. The debate should not be over whether you need to turn off this or do that to survive when you take your defective Toyota out on the road.

Third of Five

Key? Its push button start and stop. Turning the key will do nothing. You have to push the button on the dash and hold it for 5 seconds to shut the engine off.

E46 with V8

No its not that easy....































1st of all when your car is in DRIVE, you cannot turn off your car. Only when your car is in NEUTRAL then you can.































2nd If your relating this to Prius incident, then the car even in NEUTRAL cannot just simply turn off....WHY? because the transmission is electronically controlled, this new electronic system only in some Toyota/Lexus will not let the driver shift into neutral if they're doing more than a certain speed....I would say more than 60 MPH.































3rd If your in this situation, you would obviously panic, reaction time slows down and you have no idea what to do. The people who have died because of this did not know what to do, they were all unprepared and obviously panicked.































If you know about automobiles, i am sure you will be aware of what neutral would do. If you don't, you would tend to shift into all the gears until the car slows down.....































Even if you turn off the engine while your car is still moving you would lose your power steering and your brakes.....its better to just shift to neutral, press the brakes, then after stopping turn off the engine.

Hgldr

The guy whos Prius speed up to 90 in San Diego the other day states that you CAN'T go into neutral when the car is going fast.















For safety, these car manufacturers need to figure out how people react in dangerous situations. They incorrectly think that some socially illiterate software engineer is going to know how to write his code to take care of these situations.