Regarding last month's fatal accident at a Florida day care, the facts are simple:
* The official diagram of the accident confirms that the vehicle - a Solara - that crashed into a Florida day care last month could not possibly have been shoved into the day care by the vehicle which hit it from behind. The Solara took off at an angle back toward the direction from which it was hit.
* Damages to the rear of the Solara and the front of the vehicle that struck it from behind are minor. Not nearly enough force involved to have propelled the Solara over a curb, across a parking lot, all the way through a wall and completely into the day care. Even if the wall was extensively damaged by termites. Even if geometry and physics hadn't already ruled out such a theory.
* The Solara driver's statements about the brakes not working and the vehicle accelerating on its own are consistent with established facts, all of which are clearly pointing to the likelihood of electronically-induced unintended acceleration.
But...
The guy who hit the Solara has a rap sheet. Not exactly Public Enemy Number One, but Robert Corchado is the perfect candidate for gettin' hit with a rap that isn't by any stretch of the imagination justified. He may be guilty of many things, but evidence related to his latest misadventure shows that other factors were involved when the car he bumped from behind proceeded to plough into a day care, injuring 14 children, killing a four-year-old.
So Mr. Corchado is now being tried and convicted by the "news" media. All the courts will have to do is calculate a sentence.
Concerted efforts to misrepresent the facts got underway immediately after the official diagram of the accident was released. An anonymous, contrived animation popped up - now removed - on YouTube, "demonstrating" - in defiance of the laws of physics - that the Solara was "pushed" into the day care.
Then the news accounts - which had initially headlined the likelihood of unintended acceleration resulting from a defect - started to pretty much ignore the unintended acceleration issue, choosing instead to blabber about Corchado propelling the Solara into the day care. Never mind the official diagram, the Solara driver's statements, or the laws of physics. Time to convince the public that the culprit wasn't Toyota. The culprit was the party with the rap sheet. The party less able to defend itself. The party that qualifies for a public defender.
Media's sudden obsession with Robert Corchado's rap sheet must be a relief to a corporate crook like Toyota. The unintended acceleration issue - still a part of the investigation - is now all but ignored as reports blabber about a miscreant who shoved a vehicle into a day care. Amidst frenzied efforts to focus attention away from Toyota, a second video animation has now appeared, eerily similar to the first one, except the latest one is hardly anonymous. The latest effort - included along with an interview of one of the injured children's parents - is by NBC affiliate WESH2, and isn't even consistent with the Solara's position as depicted in the official diagram of the accident. Someone who visited the day care had this to say:
"Okay...this video is ridiculous. If you look at the building further along on Goldenrod, there are three actual cars in the parking lot in one of those spots today. Note the size of the vehicles...the REAL ones, not the animated ones. Now, compare the animated cars to the actual ones in terms of size. The animated ones are actually based on ratios the size of the building next door! This makes the distance traveled look much shorter when in fact it was quite a distance in terms of car lengths."
This latest video is yet another contrived animation that makes a mockery of common sense, not to mention simple laws of physics.
What on earth is going on in the state that boasts the headquarters of Southeast Toyota?
What prompted news media to suddenly start ignoring one of the central aspects of this tragic crash? To misrepresent the official diagram of the crash with an animated video and start reporting - in the face of conclusive evidence to the contrary - that the Solara was shoved into the day care by Robert Corchado?
In other posts, I've targeted this country's corporate-controlled mainstream media, its censorship as a propaganda arm of the state, and its allegiance to most anything except the truth. Media's response to April's tragic day care crash epitomizes this disgusting state of affairs. It's a repulsive little charade, dropping to a new low with the presentation of a contrived, animated video.
If we had a free press, at least the misdeeds of Robert Corchado and Toyota might be presented in proper perspective. Enter countless cases - hundreds still pending - of wrecked Toyotas associated with deaths, injuries, and accompanying claims of vehicle defects. Enter a guilty verdict in an Oklahoma unintended acceleration case last October where the jury said Toyota displayed reckless disregard for public safety when it designed its electronic throttle control. Toss in federal criminal investigations, record-setting federal fines, lawsuits galore, billion dollar settlements, confidentiality agreements, and an admission - in a federal criminal case - of misleading consumers and a federal regulator about safety defects associated with unintended acceleration.
Compared to the "Toyota Way," Robert Corchado is a small-timer.
Showing posts with label runaway Solara. Show all posts
Showing posts with label runaway Solara. Show all posts
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Fatal Solara day care crash spotlights electronic issues
Update 5/12/2014 - Statements from the Solara driver, made public today, are consistent with concerns about electronically-induced unintended acceleration. "... the Solars's brakes 'were not responding' and the car 'actually started to accelerate at a higher rate of speed.'" The Solara driver's statements are corroborated by witness accounts.
As information spreads about electronic issues associated with Toyota's unintended acceleration scandal, instances of runaway Toyotas are continuing. There have been two high profile cases in the past week in Florida, both pointing to the liklihood of electronically induced unintended acceleration. One happened Easter night when a Lexus barreled through the wall of a church. The other involved a Solara crashing through the wall of a day care, injuring many children, killing a four-year-old.
Florida Highway Patrol has now released a diagram of the KinderCare crash, which should resolve any notions - much ballyhooed by mainstream media - that the Solara was knocked through the wall when another vehicle hit it from behind. The diagram clearly shows that to be an impossibility. The Solara headed back at an angle in the opposite direction from where it was hit from behind, jumped a curb, went across a parking lot, and plowed through a wall.
There's more.
The driver of the Solara was turning a corner. Most unintended acceleration events are triggered at slow speeds, so the Solara's speed was typical. Furthermore, the driver probably had his foot on the brake. Embedded systems expert Michael Barr found that in such a situation (assuming the absence of a fail-safe), in order to get the brakes to work, a driver would have to immediately take their foot off the brake pedal and immediately reapply pressure.
It's ridiculous to expect someone to take their foot off the brake pedal when their car starts speeding out of control. No wonder the jury in Oklahoma - before whom Mr. Barr testified - not only found Toyota guilty, but also opined that the Recall King acted with reckless disregard for public safety. From the article "Toyota's killer firmware: Bad design and its consequences" here's what Mr. Barr found:
> Toyota's electronic throttle control system (ETCS) source code is of unreasonable quality.
> Toyota's source code is defective and contains bugs, including bugs that can cause unintended acceleration (UA)
> Code-quality metrics predict presence of additional bugs.
> Toyota's fail safes are defective and inadequate (referring to them as a 'house of cards' safety architecture).
> Misbehaviours of Toyota's ETCS are a cause of UA.
As the Solara case continues - the driver has not been charged with any wrongdoing - it's important to note that just because an unintended acceleration event doesn't show up on diagnostic equipment, that doesn't mean the event didn't happen. Dr. Antony Anderson recently completed a study - published in the prestigious IEEE Access - demonstrating how false speed signals can be accepted as authentic, thereby triggering unverifiable instances of unintended acceleration. Be cautious when a crook like Toyota - admittedly guilty of a federal criminal charge for misleading motorists - cites anything, including "black box" data.
Cases of unintended acceleration are continuing, and circumstances often point to defects in Toyota's electronic throttle control. Meanwhile, NASA physicist Henning Leidecker is warning of increased risk of electronically induced unintended acceleration in '02-'06 Camrys, comparing it to a game of Russian roulette. The public is being subjected to needless risk, and people are getting killed or seriously injured, apparently for no other reason than corporate greed.
How much longer is the government gonna allow a crook like Toyota to ignore compelling evidence of electronic defects in its throttle control?
Update 4/29/2014 - This just in: Today in Columbus, Ohio, a Lexus SUV crashed into seven cars, then a building, and the driver has made reference to a "stuck accelerator." Stay tuned.
As information spreads about electronic issues associated with Toyota's unintended acceleration scandal, instances of runaway Toyotas are continuing. There have been two high profile cases in the past week in Florida, both pointing to the liklihood of electronically induced unintended acceleration. One happened Easter night when a Lexus barreled through the wall of a church. The other involved a Solara crashing through the wall of a day care, injuring many children, killing a four-year-old.
Florida Highway Patrol has now released a diagram of the KinderCare crash, which should resolve any notions - much ballyhooed by mainstream media - that the Solara was knocked through the wall when another vehicle hit it from behind. The diagram clearly shows that to be an impossibility. The Solara headed back at an angle in the opposite direction from where it was hit from behind, jumped a curb, went across a parking lot, and plowed through a wall.
There's more.
The driver of the Solara was turning a corner. Most unintended acceleration events are triggered at slow speeds, so the Solara's speed was typical. Furthermore, the driver probably had his foot on the brake. Embedded systems expert Michael Barr found that in such a situation (assuming the absence of a fail-safe), in order to get the brakes to work, a driver would have to immediately take their foot off the brake pedal and immediately reapply pressure.
It's ridiculous to expect someone to take their foot off the brake pedal when their car starts speeding out of control. No wonder the jury in Oklahoma - before whom Mr. Barr testified - not only found Toyota guilty, but also opined that the Recall King acted with reckless disregard for public safety. From the article "Toyota's killer firmware: Bad design and its consequences" here's what Mr. Barr found:
> Toyota's electronic throttle control system (ETCS) source code is of unreasonable quality.
> Toyota's source code is defective and contains bugs, including bugs that can cause unintended acceleration (UA)
> Code-quality metrics predict presence of additional bugs.
> Toyota's fail safes are defective and inadequate (referring to them as a 'house of cards' safety architecture).
> Misbehaviours of Toyota's ETCS are a cause of UA.
As the Solara case continues - the driver has not been charged with any wrongdoing - it's important to note that just because an unintended acceleration event doesn't show up on diagnostic equipment, that doesn't mean the event didn't happen. Dr. Antony Anderson recently completed a study - published in the prestigious IEEE Access - demonstrating how false speed signals can be accepted as authentic, thereby triggering unverifiable instances of unintended acceleration. Be cautious when a crook like Toyota - admittedly guilty of a federal criminal charge for misleading motorists - cites anything, including "black box" data.
Cases of unintended acceleration are continuing, and circumstances often point to defects in Toyota's electronic throttle control. Meanwhile, NASA physicist Henning Leidecker is warning of increased risk of electronically induced unintended acceleration in '02-'06 Camrys, comparing it to a game of Russian roulette. The public is being subjected to needless risk, and people are getting killed or seriously injured, apparently for no other reason than corporate greed.
How much longer is the government gonna allow a crook like Toyota to ignore compelling evidence of electronic defects in its throttle control?
Update 4/29/2014 - This just in: Today in Columbus, Ohio, a Lexus SUV crashed into seven cars, then a building, and the driver has made reference to a "stuck accelerator." Stay tuned.
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