Epidemic of vehicles crashing into buildings makes headlines

The auto industry and its crooked friends in government must be gettin' nervous as word spreads, not only about evidence of defects in electronic throttle controls, but also about the outrageous number of vehicles crashing into buildings. I quickly found that there are way too many to keep up with, and the auto industry's mainstream media stooges usually keep things quiet about vehicle makes, models, and driver accounts of what happened.

Enter the "storefront barrier" scam, which I addressed in a previous blog post. Depend on this conniving government and the auto industry - epitomized by the likes of GM and Toyota - to exploit safety precautions in the name of greed. To pull out all the stops in a last-ditch effort to dupe a gullible public into focusing on anything except sloppily designed electronic throttle controls.

So many vehicles are crashing into building from parking lots that people are startin' to talk.

The government's mainstream media stooges were already lookin' sillier by the day for refusing to discuss compelling evidence of electronic defects. Then word started spreading about the high number of vehicles crashing into buildings, especially from parking lots, carwashes, etc. Something had to be done to save face - or at least attempt to - so the Miami Herald (lest we forget, Florida is home to the headquarters of Southeast Toyota) runs a piece of sheer garbage, focusing on storefront barriers, and pretending to have never heard of the overwhelming evidence of electronic defects in throttle controls. 'Cept for all those pesky injuries and deaths, the article would be a thigh-slapper. Storefront barriers are simply no substitute for properly designed electronic throttle controls.

Are Americans really so gullible? So manipulated by propaganda that they can't discern the truth? One has to be either ignorant of the facts or stupid beyond belief not to notice the Herald's glaring ommision of even the slightest mention of electronic throttle controls, much less the mountain of evidence pointing to lousy, save-a-buck designs devoid of adequate failsafes such as those mandated for years in the airline industry.

Take, for example, the blabber from Mark Wright and Rob Reiter, ballyhooed as "experts" in storefront safety, yet apparently unaware of Michael Barr finding a slew of defects in Toyota's electronic throttle control or Honda's recent admission of an electronic defect causing unintended acceleration in their vehicles. They also musta not heard that unintended acceleration has gotten so bad at carwashes that at least one business is documenting which vehicles are prone to suddenly speed out of control (Jeeps are notorious), and is furnishing carwash employees - no, they don't tend to be elderly - with a list. It's downright disgraceful when carwashes are better than NHTSA is at discerning mechanical defects in motor vehicles.

Seriously, folks. Does anyone believe that "experts" such as Wright, Reiter, and others - cops, mechanics, journalists, etc. - are unaware of electronic issues associated with the epidemic of vehicles crashing into buildings? Wright and Reiter's enthusiasm for blaming drivers is almost as ridiculous as the Miami Herald's choice of people to interview for their "story." Wonder how many auto-related advertising dollars the Herald would lose if the sorry little rag dared to publish an interview with Michael Barr.

As admitted-crook Toyota bullies whistleblower Betsy Benjaminson - using the single mother of four as a battering ram against free speech - nobody should be fooled by the well-orchestrated antics of the auto industry, its crooked friends in government and elsewhere, and presstitute media stooges like the Miami Herald. Only a slob court allows a creep like Toyota to use subpoena power as a tool of harassment against people - in Benjaminson's case, there are 21 named targets - who have dared to speak out against Toyota's inane efforts to blame its unintended acceleration scandal on floor mats, sticky gas pedals, and driver confusion.

Amidst deaths, injuries, and government-promoted lies galore, there's a word for what's going on. It's called tyranny.

Update 8/23/2014 - Speaking of tyranny, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Dr. Paul Craig Roberts - one of the few voices of sanity left on the planet - published a great article yesterday, "How Tyranny Arises."

Video: Runaway RAV4 plows into library - electronics at issue

Update 6/7/2014 - This article (unusually detailed) underscores the all-too-common circumstances in which crashes suggestive of electronically-induced unintended acceleration take place. Note that the Gilmans' car was an '03 Camry. NASA physicist Henning Leidecker is warning of increased risk of unintended acceleration in '02-'06 Camrys, calling it a game of Russian roulette.

Last Tuesday, a runaway RAV4 smashed into Finkelstein Memorial Library in Spring Valley, New York. Security-cam video caught the entire event. The RAV4 was SLOWLY turning into the parking lot when the vehicle suddenly took off like a rocket. Consistent with the video, the driver says his foot was on the brake pedal when he heard the engine rev up as the RAV4 simultaneously accelerated. This makes at least three cases during the past two months suggesting electronically-induced unintended acceleration in runaway Toyotas. Common denominators include parking lots, turning corners, slow speeds when the events begin, and driver complaints that the brakes failed to stop the vehicles. None of the drivers in these crashes (injuries galore, death of a four-year-old) have been elderly. All of the vehicles crashed into public buildings. A Solara into a daycare, a Lexus into a church, now the RAV4 into a library. 

Okay. If ol' Sammy is gonna let acknowledged crooks like Toyota ignore compelling evidence of electronic defects in throttle controls, ya gotta put barriers up. 'Specially twixt public buildings and parking lots. 'Cause parking lots are where so many unintended accelerations occur.

Who needs expensive, proper designs for electronic throttle controls when ya can have storefront barriers?

Believe it or not, that seems to be the attitude of the rapidly growing storefront-barrier movement, 'cause I've yet to see wunna their websites even so much as mention the issue of electronically-induced unintended acceleration. Not that automotive interests would dupe the public by promoting notions of "driver error," but such websites are poppin' up as fast as runaway Toyotas...

Meanwhile, runaway-vehicle events are happening far more frequently than most folks realize. The exceptionally well-credentialed electrical engineer Dr. Antony Anderson estimates that on a worldwide basis, 10,000 electronically-associated runaways take place each year. How many of these events result in vehicles crashing into public buildings is anyone's guess, but it's an alarming consideration.

One thing's for sure: The barrier people got it wrong for the runaway RAV4. Barriers placed at the library entrance - which happens to be in a direct line to a parking lot entrance that requires motorists to make a 90 degree turn, apply brakes, and travel at slow speed - were spaced so far apart that even a vehicle the size of a RAV4 could zoom between 'em unscathed, leaving the "scathed" part for the library, people inside, furniture, desks, chairs, books...

Not only proper spacing. Ya also gotta make sure those storefront barriers are strong enough to stop an out-of-control vehicle, and some haven't been. Fact is, cars have become giant computers that can even be hacked. So just think how nice it would be - since automakers seem a bit slack in designing electronic throttle controls - if barriers were most everywhere, and folks were confident that runaway vehicles, especially Toyotas, were no match for those ever-present barriers.

No, it wouldn't be a cure-all.

You'd still be on yer own until - and unless - you could get to wherever you needed to go to have safety barriers twixt you and any vehicles - notably Toyotas - in the vicinity, especially if they were lurking around those pesky parking lots where drivers are apt to be maneuvering at extremely slow speeds, foot on the brake, moving shift levers, entering or exiting parking spaces, or turning corners. As video of the runaway RAV4 demonstrates, they don't call it "sudden" unintended acceleration fer nuthin'.   

No informed consumer was surprised by Tuesday's library crash. It displayed classic circumstances in which these events take place, and the security-cam video corroborated everything the driver said. Extremely slow speed, a 90 degree turn into the parking lot, then the engine suddenly revs up as the vehicle takes off like a rocket, barrels out of control, and the brakes fail to stop it. One of the people inside the library thought the place had been bombed, and a 14 year old girl wound up pinned beneath the RAV4, lucky not to have been critically injured or killed.

From the article "Toyota's killer firmware: Bad design and its consequences," let's review once again the findings of embedded systems expert Michael Barr:

* 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

There's no excuse for this government allowing automakers - especially an acknowledged crook like Toyota - to ignore evidence of defective electronics associated with unintended acceleration. As things now stand, valid safety measures are being exploited as part of a perverse effort to save corporations big bucks. Storefront barriers are no substitute for proper designs in electronic throttle controls.

Update 6/04/2014 - I just now learned of a second runaway Lexus event that happened in April, this one in Ridgewood, New Jersey as the driver was attmepting to park. "Parking" may be the most common denominator of all. While Toyotas are most likely to be involved, other brands are not immune, demonstrated by this deadly, sudden unintended acceleration of a Subaru into a hair salon on 5/30/2014 in Jefferson Township, Pennsylvania.