News Deadly Accident Prompts Toyota Floor Mat Warning

Deadly Accident Prompts Toyota Floor Mat Warning

Car dealerships are ordered to inspect floor mats that may cause fatal crashes

VIDEO >>>>


An accelerator stuck on a floor mat may have caused a tragic crash that killed a CHP officer and his family. Now, Lexus and Toyota are telling customers how a simple inspection could save their lives.

Mark Saylor, 45, his wife Cleofe, 45, their daughter Mahala, 13 and brother-in-law Chris Lastrella, 38, died in the August 28 crash on Highway 125 in Santee.

Witnesses reported seeing a Lexus weaving through traffic at a high rate of speed. The driver tried to make a left turn, but he was going too fast and struck a Ford Explorer. The Lexus broke through a fence and struck a dirt embankment, catapulting it through the air more than 100 feet.

The vehicle landed in dense vegetation near a riverbed and caught fire.
The 2009 Lexus ES 350 was a loaner from Bob Baker Lexus El Cajon. Investigators said it was equipped with all-weather mats, designed for Lexus vehicles made between 2004 and 2009.

The thick, all weather floor mat may have caused the crash by jamming the Lexus gas pedal to the floor.

So Toyota and Lexus dealerships are now checking floor mats in every car, truck and SUV. The company says other automakers, independent garages and car owners should do the same.

One mechanic says "aftermarket" floor mats, purchased at auto parts stores, can be a problem.

"They don't fit perfect. They usually don't have anything to hold them into place," Fred Webb with Toyota/Lexus Care. "They have a tendency to slide forward and get underneath the pedals and have a tendency to cause problems there."

Toyota and Lexus issued a safety recall two years ago, invoving all-weather floor mats in the 2007 and 2008 Toyota Camry and Lexus ES sedan.

In a 911 call made from inside the car just before the crash, a man can be heard telling the emergency dispatcher "We're in trouble. There's no brakes." The dispatcher asks if they are able to turn off the car. While the dispatcher is trying to help the caller, you can hear the man say the car is approaching an intersection. Next, the passengers tell each other to hold on and someone in the car tells the others to pray.

Saylor was driving the car according to investigators. All of the victims died from blunt force trauma either to the head or torso. The county's medical examiner declared all deaths as the result of an accident.

mine do that all the time (move foward), I just pull it back with MY FEET, geez... whats so complicated in that part....

I can't comment on the bead brakes part... could be very truw in a high power engine, even the brakes can't hold on a fast moving + V8 (guessing) engine.

they can't even shift to Neutral?....

damn...

So it's a bummer about the entire incident. The automakers shouldn't be held accountable or anything.. Even if it were the floor mats... As stated by others.. 'it happens'... weather or not you get OE option mats or aftermarket... What really turned me off was this...

It had to be to the floor to get jammed to the floor... VERY rarely does the regular commuter actually put the pedal to the floor. Unless via aggressive driving.... So if that were the case.. what the heck was he doing in the first place???

My .02

I agree with Vortex. Use common sense to stop the car. And to take Vortex's advice of turning the car off one more step, pop the tranny into neutral and stand on the brakes. Even the ebrake would work. I would expect a cop to know how to control a malfunctioning car... sigh

YOu know sometimes you dont think about things like shutting your car off or putting it in neutral or pulling the E-brake cause your to busy thinking on how not to mess up the car , Thats what I think what happen is they panic real bad

The thoughts come easily to my mind... Maybe the Darwin Award is applicable in this case.

man... i got the chills watching this on tv.

from the you tube vid:

DISPATCHER: 911 emergency what are you reporting

LASTRELLA: Our accelerator stuck... We're in trouble. We can't - there's no brakes..

DISPATCHER: Okay and you don't have the ability like, to turn off the vehicle or anything?


somehow they thought to call 911, which the operator asks/tell them to turn off the vehicle and the guy just ignores the advice.

it's probaby because they are in extreme panic

ofcourse they would be in panic... but would u really think about what not to do to not hurt your car... no matter what... i wouldn't care about hurting the car. i'd be more worried about my life and the passengers

Fishy story. The floor mat was jammed up and twisted so bad that his accelerator was stuck and his brakes didn't work? How does that work. Also I'm with everybody else here, ebrake, transmission or shut the thing off. You wanna see a car die out real quick? In my old Grand Prix my transmission needle got stuck on "1" once. About 30 miles an hour I popped it two notches up to get back into "D". Well, that wasn't D. It was R. And the transmission made a god awful clunk and I came to a pretty abrupt stop.

LOL I forgot about shifting into reverse and blowing the tranny. But hey it saves lives in a jammed up pedal runaway loose car.

This is just a big case of FAIL on the trained law enforcement officer's part. I award him the Darwin award. Unfortunately, the other people in the car didn't deserve to fail for his incompetency.

That is so crazy I heard it too :superconf

Update

Toyota to recall 3.8M vehicles over floor mats


Toyota to recall 3.8M vehicles over floor mat problems, largest US recall in company's history
By Ken Thomas, Associated Press Writer
On Tuesday September 29, 2009, 5:40 pm EDT
Buzz up! 0 Print.WASHINGTON (AP) -- Toyota says it will recall 3.8 million vehicles in the United States to address problems with a removable floor mat that could interfere with the vehicle's accelerator and cause a crash. The company says it will be the largest recall in its history. Owners could learn about the safety campaign as early as next week.

Toyota and the government warned owners of Toyota and Lexus vehicles about safety problems tied to the removable floor mats. They say the mats could interfere with the vehicle's accelerator and cause a crash.

The recall will affect 2007-2010 model year Toyota Camry, 2005-2010 Toyota Avalon, 2004-2009 Toyota Prius, 2005-2010 Tacoma, 2007-2010 Toyota Tundra, 2007-2010 Lexus ES350 and 2006-2010 Lexus IS250 and IS350.

Owners should take out the floor mats on the driver's side and not replace them.

Toyota's previously largest recall was about 900,000 vehicles in 2005 to fix a steering issue.

Wow. That is epic.

apparently the car had keyless ignition and was a loaner courtesy vehicle so they couldn't simply turn off the ignition and was unfamiliar with the car.

Ok. That makes more sense. However, even if he was unfamiliar with the car, shifting into neutral is still possible. They didn't eliminate the shifter.