Nice New Toyotas

I turn on the news, and if I didn’t know any better, I would think Hollywood has launched a brilliant viral marketing campaign for its newest recycled horror film: The villain, a seemingly typical hybrid that refuses to listen to its driver or its own brake pads, a metaphor for our blind faith in the hybrid automotive industry; the victims, more than 8.5 million Toyota owners of such demonized machines worldwide, four of whom tragically meet their demise. Hey, it worked with a cell phone, right?

But reports from several independent agencies, as well as Toyota’s own investigation, seem to tell a strikingly different tale, one with all the embellishment, absurdity, and public interest of a prime-time reality show. More often than not, these reports find in such allegedly runaway Priuses – by far the most numerous of all runaways reported – that accidents were caused by human error, not faulty brakes.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which reports on vehicle safety issues, recalls and defects, found in one such accident in New York City on March 9, 2010, that “information retrieved from the vehicle’s onboard computer systems indicated there was no application of the brakes and the throttle was fully open” when the vehicle crashed into a stone wall, alleging that the driver was, in fact, at fault.

And the southern Californian who claimed his Prius reached speeds exceeding 90 miles per hour on a crowded freeway the day before? Toyota’s report – confirmed by a congressional committee – finds that his brake pedal and accelerator were repeatedly depressed upwards of 250 times, which can cause the safety feature designed to stop unintended acceleration to fail, among other inconsistencies with his story.

So what, if anything, would cause drivers to create their own chapters in The Case of the Runaway Prius? Well, for one, we are social creatures and crave attention in any form. It is also natural for humans to want to blame an accident of any kind on something – or someone – else. Once an alibi is created, or a loophole produced, especially one with such media attention as the Runaway Prius, it is also natural for such alibis to be repeated. Compound these with the potential for monetary gain through class-action lawsuit, and any such event can be blown out of proportion. As with every story, it is critical to read the facts from reputable sources, lest we begin to believe the works of fiction.