Toyota sued in carbon monoxide tragedy

Wow, sad story. It is funny, just yesterday I almost walked away from my prius leaving it on. Had I not tried to lock the car, and heard the loud beep it would have remained on.

I did press the power button, but for some reason sometimes it doesn't turn the car off.

I do not know why this happens. If I had a house, especially with a garage, locking my car would not be a priority for me. The car could have easily been left on in that situation.

It makes you wonder how often this does occur. I think something does need to be done to address this issue.

 

Strange! When I leave my Prius in ready and walk away, I get 3 really annoying beeps that tell me it is still on.

 

It's the same old problem: All the information is there to use the product safely. It is always possible to do something dangerous or fatal. Law suits will continue to push manufacturers into making products more difficult or annoying to use to compensate for uninformed or inattentive customers. Witness the Prius "backup beep".

 

""Ernest was very vibrant and vital and she's left with a feeling that somehow she's responsible for the accident," Kushlefsky said."

Really? the person that left a deadly device running completely unattended feels repsonsible when it kills someone?

I also don't understand this "i don't need to lock it because it's in my garage" thing. I no longer have a garage, but did at our last house. the car was alwas locked.

 

Terrible tragedy. Too bad she did not turn off the car. Lawsuit without merit.

 

It is not the manufacture's responsibility to design a product with an infinite amount safeguards so that every last person is protected in every conceivable situation. Not sure about the Lexus, but the Prius makes noise when it's on and you walk away with the key fob. If you're old and hard of hearing, not technologically inclined, or weak in the language the manual was written it in, it's not Toyota fault.

 

That must have been sometime ago, eh? Nowadays most juries throw out personal responsibilities and tag the deep pockets.

 

I agree with you. However, the backup beep is different. It is there to annoy pedestrians as well so owners are protected.

 

The Prius backup beep can't be heard by pedestrians. It's inside only.

 

Seems to me, that a simple $10 carbon monoxide detector would have prevented this. How many times do we hear on TV, radio, etc that you should have one and that the daylight savings time change is a great time to test them and put a fresh battery in? I have 2 of them in my house (they do CO and CO2). The things are louder than loud and make all kinds of noise when the batteries are running low. Mine are actually connected to each other wireless, so if one goes off, so does the other. They cost me $25 each.

 

I can hear it outside the vehicle, although it is very faint. The beep itself only has an audio source inside the vehicle but someone could hear it outside the vehicle. Then again, if you turn it to 1 beep, they'd have to be right there when you place the vehicle in reverse.

I know you know this, though, but for those that may not necessarily realize it, I figured I would elaborate a little.

 

It's pretty much useless for pedestrians outside the Prius. If they are paying enough attention to notice the faint beep, they will notice the other signs of a backing car.

Tom

 

This is a "2008 Lexus ES 350" which is not even a hybrid. Perhaps it is time to move this poisonous gas thread to the Lexus forum?

The complaint can be read at:
http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/11/02/NotSmart.pdf

This is the second time that a keyless Lexus has become the subject of potentially, a high profile death. From the complaint:

The first was the San Diego crash:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/aug/31/bn31chp-lexus-crash/

Bob Wilson

 

The "KEYLESS IGNITION" system on Toyotas/Lexus are very well designed. If I attempt to leave the car without turning off the engine, the car emits a continuous BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP because the key is in my pocket, and the key MUST BE IN THE CAR to keep the engine running. Besides its kinda hard to walk away while your car won't let you lock it, and it's making the loud and annoying BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP that anyone in the vicinity can plainly hear. You see the car can NOT be locked until you turn off the engine. Toyota has done an exemplary job of making these cars about as 'Idiot Proof' as they can possibly and practically be.
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How did the car put out enough carbon monoxide to kill someone elsewhere in the house? Modern emission control systems have cleaned up the exhaust enough to foil many garage suicide attempts.

This is also an indoor air quality issue that should have been addressed by the building construction. In the old days, numerous innocent people sleeping indoors were killed by garage suicide attempts. While new cars should not be putting out that much CO, other CO emitters such as older cars, grills, and portable generators still get operated in the garage by the clueless, volatile chemicals are improperly but frequently stored there, and gas fired water heaters still suffer occasional problems. Construction or house operation that allows significant amounts of fumes of any sort to seep from the garage into the living space is simply irresponsible.

 

Please try the following test:

• cool or cold evening, 50 F or lower so the engine and heating will provide a load
• reset a tripmeter and drive 5-10 miles
• park car without hitting "Power"
• read out the tripmeter miles and MPG as this will let us know if the engine runs
• leave and try to lock the doors
• place keyfobs some distance away and/or wrap in aluminum foil
• leave car in that state for ~1 hour
• go back to car and see if the door is locked
• read out the MPG

When I've run this test, the MPG has gone down reflecting the engine running to sustain the heat and traction battery SOC.

GOOD LUCK!
Bob Wilson

 

Agreed