Another runaway in norway

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Interesting but I noticed the speed:
176 km / h

But looking at the damage, it looks like the car was not running that fast when it hit the barrier:


Can you describe the barrier he hit?

Bob Wilson

 

There's a news story in English, but I'm not yet allowed to post URLS...

It goes a little something like:

www DOT straitstimes DOT com SLASH BreakingNews SLASH Money SLASH Story SLASH STIStory_501392 DOT html

=)

I think the paper is from Singapore.

 

These are obviously "copycat" drivers looking for attention. Everyone knows that Toyota Japan has proven only American drivers are stupid enough to have this happen to them, and the problem has to be some American parts supplier.

 

Nice Touring. That'll buff out.

 

Jeff Spicoli: "Relax, all right? My old man is a television repairman, he's got this ultimate set of tools. I can fix it."

 

176 is the posted speed with EU tolerance. It corresponds to 166 km/h real speed, 104 MPH.

The Prius can read a posted EU speed if 181 km/h - 170 km/h real speed.

 

Another allegation of UA in Norway was posted a while back.

http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-hybrid-news/77676-another-out-control-prius.html#post1084019

Could these two be the same incident?

 

fast times!

 

I'm sure we'll see more of them.

 

Toyota Prius could be banned / News / The Foreigner — Norwegian News in English

Toyota Prius could be banned

Statens vegvesen (the Norwegian Public Roads Administration/NPRA) says it’s considering imposing a temporary driving ban on the Toyota Prius.
Petrified

The possible veto comes after last week’s lucky escape by a motorist who was driving on the E18 motorway towards Lillesand in Agder municipality, when the accelerator pedal in his 2009 automatic model jammed.
“My father had been travelling at speeds up to 176 km/h, and was doing over 100 when he called the police. He tried to use the brakes, but it didn’t help,” the 49 year-old man’s son told VG.
According to police, the terrified motorist rang at 12:26 to tell them he couldn’t stop his car, and only managed to bring the vehicle to a halt after driving in to crash barriers.
The man received only minor injuries in the collision, and was sent to the emergency room as a precaution.
Recall

Toyota has had to recall eight million cars worldwide produced between 2004 and 2009 after there have been several similar accidents involving their cars, but this is the first time it has happened in Norway.
Erik Aalling, head of the NPRA’s vehicle engineering section, says they are considering issuing a temporary driving ban if motorists are at acute risk.
“We can demand that the recalled models have to remain stationary until they have been checked, if we consider the incident on the E18 to be serious enough,” he says.
Meanwhile, Lars-Erik Ã…røy, director of Toyota Norway, discounts this, saying they’ve already written to the customer to assure him the cars are safe.
Investigation

Toyota’s technical experts have checked the car, but haven’t found anything wrong with it so far. An NPRA representative is also in place.
Espen Olsen, head of information for Toyota Norway, underlines he doesn’t doubt the motorist experienced a problem, and the company regrets what has happened.
However, he says they believe it was most likely the floor mat that had jammed underneath the accelerator pedal, as it wasn’t secured properly.
“We have already encouraged our patrons to check to see if the driver’s floor mat is secured to the floor with clips according to regulations. One shouldn’t use rubber mats on top of textile ones, or unoriginal mats that aren’t made for either the car or the shape of the accelerator.”
Årøy says Toyota has now offered to buy the car back so they can double-check there are no problems.

 

Not cool I posted already this the day it happened

 

OMG another one that's a hoax or driver error. It looks like most (if not all) of these runaway incidents are going to be like this!

 

How can you be so sure without any facts?

This seems odd if Toyota was absolutely as sure as you are:

"Årøy says Toyota has now offered to buy the car back so they can double-check there are no problems."

 

Read the link in post 15. After trying to reconstruct the collision the Norwegian accident investigators are now seriously doubting the drivers account. Also (as usual) they've found nothing wrong with the cars controls. And finally, what are the chances that every Prius that runs away on a freeway just happens to have a driver that's too darn stupid to put it in neutral or turn it off!

No it's not 100% conclusive but come on, any person looking at this stuff with a reasonably independent mind would have to conclude that probability of this being real is pretty small. Nothing's ever 100% conclusive but IMHO there's got to be some point where you start calling BS, and I'm at that point now.

 

Let's be honest, look at this picture:

And tell me if that looks like a car that slowed down by hitting the barrier at 102 MPH (corrected to real speed of indicated 174 kph).

 

Just for comparison, this is another car that lost control and hit the barrier at 80 MPH. (20 miles slower).