Quote:
Originally Posted by MeredithMan
.....did you ever notice, whenever a car crashes into a house, building, etc, and the reason given is "the accelerator stuck", the driver is just about always someone in their 70's, 80's, & beyond? I've never heard of an accelerator sticking for someone in their 30's-50's....
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In the unlikely event of unintended throttle, proper application of the brake pedal should prevent your car from accelerating into a crash.
According to independent estimates, the various Toyotas and Lexuses with sticky accelerator pedals have been responsible for approximately 2000 accidents and 32 fatalities over the past 10 years. Tragic as those incidents have been, they account for a small percentage of the total number of fatal accidents on U.S. highways. Data compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) shows more than 330,000 Americans died in vehicle-related accidents over the previous decade.
In the long list of hazards—including texting, drunk driving, falling asleep at the wheel and inclement weather—unintended acceleration comes out at the bottom.
From NHTSA:
Drivers younger than 20 were overrepresented in pedal misapplication crashes by a factor of 2.38 times their representation in the driving population. Drivers 20 to 64 were underrepresented in pedal misapplication crashes, compared to their proportions in the driving population. Those 65 to 69 were slightly overrepresented, while those age 70 to 74 were represented in crashes involving pedal misapplications at nearly twice their proportion in the driving population (1.90). The risk increased more sharply as age increased, beginning at age 75.For drivers ages 85 and older the relative risk climbed to 12.6.Thus, while pedal misapplication crashes were prevalent among both younger and older drivers, older driver involvement increased sharply in relation to their proportion among the population of licensed drivers.