Charles Dawson examines the Piltdown Man
JohnFN has already written about the evidence surrounding “sudden acceleration” in some Toyota models.
Friday some of you may have seen live footage of a James Sikes, speeding down a Califoria freeway on the phone with 911 operators, claiming he was unable to slow or stop his vehicle.
Here’s James’ attorney, John Gomez, on why researchers at the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration cannot replicate the incident on Mr. Sike’s Prius:
“There’s a ghost in the machine,” he said. “And no one is able to replicate it or pinpoint it or identify it. . . . It doesn’t leave a way to make the particular vehicle do it again.”
Michael Fumento of Forbes does some great, investigative journalism in this article, http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/12/toyota-autos-hoax-media-opinions-contributors-michael-fumento_3.html
I don’t know the truth regarding this incident. The jury is still out, and the experts are still weighing the evidence, but journalists ought to take a hint from Mr. Fumento. There is reporting, and there is journalism. Mr. Fumento is a journalist.
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I read that article Rufus… you’re right. It is a great piece of investigative reporting. He should get on this healthcare thing!
Never forget — the trial attorneys and their consumer advocate enablers are waiting to scare the snot out of us to line their own pockets.
Ghost in the Machine…so basically what he is saying is there is some unidentifiable, unreproducible, and undefinable, variable that caused the Prius to go all “Christine?” Well, if that’s the case, dump the lawyer and go grab a priest.
These cars do have parking brakes, yes?
Yes, and a recent study showed that they, like all cars, will come to a complete stop when the brakes are applied, even under full throttle. In other words, as long as the brakes work there is more friction in the braking system than torque in the drive train. Even on a car with much, much more horsepower than this one, the car stopped within a few hundred feet with the accelerator depressed. Also, all of these cars can be shifted into neutral. Also, the ignition can be switched off. The 911 operator asked Mr. Sikes to do all of these things and he never responded.
It’s worse than that… the Prius — the car this guy was driving will cut off if the brake and gas are pushed at the same time — which is what this guy said he was doing. I also heard there was hardly any wear and tear on his brakes.
Perhaps he was looking for his “fifteen minutes of fame?”
“Ghost in the machine”
What next? Is the guy going to claim his Prius turned him into a newt (but he got better)?
I think he just didn’t want to risk misspelling outlandos d’amour, regatta de blanc or zenyattà mondatta.
Very funny!
Whew! Considering the recent “voices, inside my head,” glad someone else liked my cop-related humor.
My title to this post is so outstanding I’m having a hard time believing I am the first to think of it. Has Floyd used this title in the past?
Not that I know of, but it does appear in the Urban Dictionary:
Someone who suddenly and without warning, enters an area such as a party, and immediately ruins the mood for everyone else.
The party was really great, until that douche ex machina John showed up and started acting like an ass&%$* like he always does.
Wow! I had no idea, and, I’m pretty sure I have never heard it before.
Rufus… I would never run the risk of calling God a douche. Can you tell us why you hate Him so? Hope you enjoy Hell. The Rufus, the Rufus, the Rufus is on Fire!
Me and God, we got an understanding.
Forbes can kiss my boots. Thanks to my own investigative reporting, I’ve figured out what’s behind all this. Ghost in the machine? We could only wish.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181852/
Here’s another documented case.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067023/
The Threedonian interns have done some more research and found the first instance of this way back in ’68, here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064603/
And, amazingly enough, James Sikes was also the victim in that instance. Here’s a picture they found:
And in 1965 Red Sovine sang about this…
Red Sovine works for Toyota?! Thank goodness for the UAW, or we’d all be dead!
Whenever I see Buddy Hackett I think SHIPOOPI!
“Forbes can kiss my boots.”
Goldarn it — watch your language — poopy mouth.
Alright – ass.
Does that go with my SHIPOOPI?
Play your cards right, FN, and you may just get her yet.
When I was 17yo, all that my mom could afford was a deathtrap called the Ford Fiesta. It was a stick shift, so her boyfriend (now my stepdad) drove me around the hilliest places we could find and taught me how to drive it.
Several months later, I was approaching a busy intersection, and my foot on the brake went straight to the floor and did absolutely nothing. Luckily, I remembered how to downshift to slow down the car, scored the left-turn green arrow that I needed and headed straight home, where I swore LOUDLY that I was not coming within five feet of that machine, that I was back on my bicycle.
Mom & Stepdad thought that I was full of crap, and Stepdad took the car out himself. After 45 minutes of him driving around and muttering to himself about my adolescent dramatics, his brake foot finally went straight to the floor without any resistance. He took the car straight to the repair shop, walked back to my mom’s and apologized for not believing me.
Also, the doors on our CR-V lock for no apparent reason while I’m loading or unloading the Urban Kids. The repair guys at the dealership can’t reproduce it, and I can’t figure out an exact pattern for it. (Maybe Mr. Fumento’s lawyer has some ideas?)
So, y’see, my first instinct was to step outside of my usual hard-bitten cynicism and give this jack-ass the benefit of the doubt. Stupid me. Thank you, Rufus and JohnFN! This has sealed any cracks in my jaded habits.
=-)
Urban Mom,
I have had all kinds of crazy things happen in cars I was driving, primarily because I’m cheap and drove junk cars for a lot of years. I’ve had accelerators stick and brakes, steering and clutches fail, all while driving. Fortunately I had enough time in each instance to act before hitting anything. Can an accelerator stick? Yes. Back in the days of carbeurators I’ve even seen the throttle get stuck open while the accelerator pedal wasn’t depressed at all. However, you can always turn the engine off and/or brake and/or put the thing in neutral. I have known engines that won’t turn off while getting fuel, but even in those cases putting it in neutral and putting on the brake would do the trick. As Floyd mentioned, there ought to be a lot of wear on this guy’s brakes, if he really was trying to stop the car.
I shaved with Occam’s razor this morning, and Occam told me Mr. Sikes is this month’s Richard Heene.
I’ve been asking anyone who brings up the problems with Toyota cars accelerating “can’t they just turn the car off?”
They can put it in neutral and turn it off. The Prius is specifically made to power down if the accelerator and brake are pushed at the same time.
The truth is sticky
and sometimes tricky
Ride the Rufus wave
Occam Shave
It’s not Burma, it’s Myanmar!
Re-reading, I’m seeing that I put “Mr. Fumento’s lawyer.” Meant to say, “Mr. Sikes’ lawyer.” But maybe you knew that? Such are the dangers of trying to comment with kids in the same room. And I was wracking my brain for Richard Heene’s name, but couldn’t conjure it.
Have I ever mentioned that I get more of my news from threedonia.com than anywhere else, really? Y’all are more thorough — and frankly, smarter — than most folks that I see/read in the news.