<VV> Expert witness info - unintended acceleration

[Tom Berg]

Frank,
 
For what it's worth, twice I experienced unintended acceleration in rental cars. The first time was a with a late '90s Ford Taurus on an wide-open highway in Mississippi. For maybe 10 miles I had the cruise control set at 60 mph with my right foot idle, resting on its side the floor, no where near the pedals. The car began climbing a slight upgrade; then it began accelerating moderately. 
 
"What's this?" I thought, but there was no other traffic and I didn't rush to correct it. We went maybe a third of a mile ("we" being the Taurus with its own mind and me) and speed had climbed to 65. I touched the brake pedal and it disconnected. That was it, and it never happened again with that car before I turned it in. 
 
The second time was a year or so later in a mid-size Pontiac in California. I waited in a left-turn lane at the head of a line of cars, and when I got the green arrow I began moving; about a quarter-way into my turn the car began accelerating a little more briskly on its own. "Hmm," I said, and touched the brake pedal. End of event, and I finished my turn and went on my way. Again, no recurrences with that car. 
 
To me they were minor things and I didn't report them to anyone, but I was certainly aware of that infamous Audi event in the garage and the woman driver whom everyone dismissed as a panic case. And they demonstrated to me that unintended acceleration is definitely possible. It's probably electronically induced, maybe by spurious signals from outside or inside the car, and is almost impossible for mechanics and investigators to duplicate.  It happened to me twice, and no, I wasn't jamming the wrong pedal.  
 
--Tom in Ohio
 

________________________________
 From: Frank DuVal <corvairduval at cox.net>
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org 
Sent: Sunday, April 14, 2013 12:40 PM
Subject: Re: <VV> Expert witness info - Corvair included
  

I have a different view, as I skipped to many pages deep before reading 
anything. I can not say I would agree with any other ramblings he wrote, 
as I only read this one so far.

I found his report on the Audi 5000. I agree with everything he says on 
this particular subject.

I'll skip to the chase:

All the unintended acceleration reports of the Audi 5000 were just 
people stepping on the wrong pedal.

The only fault on Audi's part was a slightly offset pedal placement from 
what was "normal" back then.

Now for the good part, I have personal experience of steeping on the 
wrong pedal, TWICE! Let me tell you it is hard to convince yourself your 
foot is on the wrong pedal, even when the "brake" pedal is on the floor 
and a solid object is getting bigger in your sight. Both time by the 
time I reacted and moved my foot to the correct brake pedal, I had 
stopped by the force of the unmoveable object. No, not a Corvair, but 
cars I wasn't used to driving, just moving around the shop. One was 
right hand drive. BTW, it was the clutch pedal I found with my right 
foot, not the accelerator pedal. One wasn't even running, just going 
down a slope. Enough for now, maybe the statue of limitations hasn't 
gone away yet.

Frank DuVal

On 4/14/2013 10:13 AM, Ken Klingaman wrote:
> I read his first case late last night, and contrary to other previous readings, I will not/can not reread this self promotional drivel.
>
> As much as we, as a society, want to blame someone for what happens, sometimes S**t happens. I can't comment on the accident recreation, I was not there nor did we see all of his data.
>
> Ken Klingaman
>
> For some reason, probably the outcome of a Google search, I ended up at the
> Blog of a crash scene investigator. He was a GM employee, worked on
> Corvair  lawsuit response, and left GM. He eventually ended up on the "other
> side",  so to speak. His name is Carl F. Thelin. A link to his musings is below.
> He does  talk about many "events", as he calls them, as well as discussing
> the court  rituals he has experienced, etc. I am not endorsing his
> suggestions, his  conclusions or even his observations, but I found it interesting
> reading.  Plenty of Corvair discussion is included. Some of it will, indeed
> piss you off.  But that is what discussion is for, isn't it? - Seth Emerson
>
> http://cxsi.blogspot.com/

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