Gas Station Fire blamed on Brakes

You all remember the laptop battery fires. Well I actually had someone say to me “you know those batteries in your car can explode at any time.” All I could do was to laugh at them.

 

Somebody thought it was a "drive-thru" - literally.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Stev0 @ Mar 6 2007, 10:54 PM) [snapback]401400[/snapback]</div>

I just though about this. In most gas stations the mini mart part is in the back of the lot. This guy was supposedly going super fast and was able to maneuver through the parking lot not hitting any cars, people, or gas pumps wile the car was accelerating at max speed. This guy is a great driver he obviously drove into that mini mart on purpose.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(D1CK1E @ Mar 6 2007, 10:42 PM) [snapback]401384[/snapback]</div>

Tomatoes? Sure, just watch this documentary to find out all about tomatoes.

I'm more concerned about carrots, though, Tool tried to warn us a few years ago:

And the angel of the lord came unto me, snatching me up from my
place of slumber.
And took me on high, and higher still until we moved to the
spaces betwixt the air itself.
And he brought me into a vast farmlands of our own midwest.
And as we descended, cries of impending doom rose from the soil.

One thousand, nay a million voices full of fear.
And terror possesed me then.
And I begged,
"Angel of the Lord, what are these tortured screams?"
And the angel said unto me,
"These are the cries of the carrots, the cries of the carrots!

You see, Reverend Maynard, tomorrow is harvest day and to them
it is the holocaust."
And I sprang from my slumber drenched in sweat like the tears of
one million terrified brothers and roared,
"Hear me now, I have seen the light!
They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul!

Damn you!
Let the rabbits wear glasses!
Save our brothers!"

 

Good thing there wasn't any blind people standing around the mini mart, because they wouldn't have heard the hybrid coming!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(NoMoShocks @ Mar 6 2007, 11:39 PM) [snapback]401420[/snapback]</div>

Especially with how quiet it is going 60 mph!
I looked at the TV report; they showed the car being extracted from the building. Aside from fire damage, the car was pretty intact for such a high rate of speed....

 

if the car is accelerating and you feel you have no control. there is a big Park button.. if you press it while the car is over 8mph, it goes to neutral. if you press the power button it goes to Neutral. If you hold the power button, it kills power.

Same with park.. if you put the car into Reverse.... it will go into neutral.

there are soo many ways to put this car into neutral. I also find the electric shock scare to be BS. that battery pack has GFI breakers that connect to the battery. the battery pack would have to be floating in water to even possibly be a harm.

 

Maybe AH-nuld is doing Terminator 4 after all and wanted to do a green "I'll be Bock" scene. Stuns the evil terminator with a hybrid pack discharge then finishes em off with a chain gun.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(D1CK1E @ Mar 6 2007, 07:42 PM) [snapback]401384[/snapback]</div>

 

The brakes have more than enough stopping power to immobilize a "runaway" Prius. Even if the Prius had 500hp it could still hold the car stopped. Just ask any teenager who has drag raced their mom's car and stepped on the brake with their left foot while loading up the torque converter with their right. Not that I would know anything about stuff like this.

 

Car Crashes Into Gas Station, Catches Fire

Another TV stations's video report

POSTED: 1:37 pm PST March 6, 2007
UPDATED: 5:42 pm PST March 6, 2007

TACOMA, Wash. -- A driver who said his accelerator malfunctioned crashed into a Tacoma gas station and escaped before the vehicle and the building caught fire on Tuesday, KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reported.

“I’m shaking now, but it was so fast I didn’t know what was happening,†Robinson said.

The driver, Arthur Robinson, told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reporter Kevin McCarty that he was driving his Toyota Prius on Interstate 5 when he realized the gas pedal wasn't working. He said he tried the emergency brake, but he couldn't stop the car.

Video: Driver Slams Into Gas Station When Accelerator Sticks


“The car suddenly started to accelerate, even though my foot was completely off the gas, I put the emergency brake to the floor, I put the regular brake to the floor, the car kept moving,†Robinson said.

He said he got off the freeway, passed through an intersection and was forced to crash into the side of a Shell gas station and mini-mart at South 84th Street and South Hosmer Street to stop the vehicle.

The car erupted into flames, and part of the gas station caught fire, leaving a charred black hole in the side of the building.

Gas station workers hit an emergency switch, cutting power to the gas pumps.

No one was hurt. Customers inside the building had just left or there would have been several people injured, clerks told McCarty
*Moderator Note--Threads merged here.

 

THIS is a topic I posted back in August that, despite some doubting Thomases (or Ricks... ), I still believe we all need to at least CONSIDER handing out to some of the clearly clueless first responders, on Emergency Response & Hybrid information.

Maybe I'm a bit cynical, but somehow, I can't help but think little things, like the big story in the current Newsweek about how Toyota's pretty close to beating GM at selling the most vehicles WORLDWIDE.

Can you say PROPAGANDA?

 

I bet the black box says his foot was firmly planted on the accelerator the whole time.

 

I'm thinking this guy was at fault and not the car.

 

Someone posted another account of this on another thread:

http://www.kirotv.com/news/11185573/detail.html

This one had this interesting piece of information:

 

There is another thread already devoted to this story.

http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=30340&st=0

 

I used the address in one of the stories (the 8400 block of S. Hosmer St. in Tacoma, Washington) to look up
the place on Google maps. The video of one of the stories shows that the mini-mart is across from the off-ramp from I-5 north. The Google satellite photo makes it clear that that off-ramp ends in a T intersection. So if one were going too fast off the off-ramp and couldn't make the turn at the T intersection, one would have no choice but to hit the mini-mart or the building next door.


In the KIRO 7 video, the driver says on-camera, "It was so fast that I didn't know what was happening."

 

"He said he got off the freeway, passed through an intersection and was forced to crash into the side of a Shell gas station and mini-mart at South 84th Street and South Hosmer Street to stop the vehicle"

Now that's just brilliant. If you car is out of control, you keep on driving and look for the closest gas station to crash into in order to stop the vehicle.

 

The link to the pdf for first-responders no longer works.
Maybe it could be reposted?

 

When I was learning to drive, my parents did not seem to appreciate the cross-training learning curve they were throwing at me on top of Driving 101.

The long-time family car (later commuter) was a 1961 Corvair with automatic. It's essentially a large VW and does not respond like a conventional car. One lunch break, my Dad attempted to see if I would "get" a second-hand Corvair with a stick shift. Not near enough time for me, plus walking all day drained me - left me frustrated. A few years later, I'd master the standards, but it took two weeks.

Family also had a 1969 Oldsmobile Cutlass with power brakes/power steering. One day I let the Oldsmobile punch a hold in the garage. Why? The brakes were so easy to press I was afraid it was the accelerator. Jumping from it to the Corvair was so confusing I just decided not to take a chance pressing the accelerator.


Many of you probably need a slight break-in period with a rental. This guy just got his Prius, so I suspect unfamiliarity was a factor.