Quote:
Originally Posted by scollins
Honestly, I place the blame for all these acceleration accidents at the feet of automatic transmissions. Why? Automatics have become so prevalent that many people completely forget how their cars work. I know that these deaths are tragedies, but if someone has enough time to call 911 and say their car is careening out of control, then they have had MORE than ample time to move the shift lever to FUCKING NEUTRAL!!!!!
I haven't looked at the data, but I'm willing to bet that every single accident attributed to stuck accelerators were cars equipped with automatic transmissions. Why? Because anyone who drives a manual transmission knows to push in the damn clutch! These would be "panic stop" situations, which means "both feet IN!"
I'm not meaning for this to be a "auto vs. manual" thread. I'd say most of the automatic drivers here on this forum would know to move the shift lever to neutral in these situations. But the vast majority of Americans are bad drivers at best. Which is why the government wants to intervene. "People are dumb, so we must make systems that keep them from hurting themselves." Sadly, the unintended consequence is that each new "safety system" just further removes the driver from the operation, masking even worse inadequacies and deficiencies in skills.
And the ultimate oxymoron about this concept? Doesn't the US government feel the REAL problem is the ELECTRONIC CONTROLS in Toyota cars that are the problem? So let's mandate a different electronic control system to make sure the first electronic control system problem doesn't happen! Am I the only one who sees the idiocy in that??
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somewhat harsh but I do agree...I think the time/money spent in Congress drafting legislation would be much better spent on a national ad campaign showing people what do if this happens to them.
Like somebody said, Congress just feels like they need to react to every problem by making new laws. Not too long ago these two guys followed home this couple from Cheshire, CT, not too far from where I live. They beat the father, strangled the mother, raped the two teenage girls, robbed the place, lit it on fire and took off. I think the father was the only one to make it out alive. The CT legislature was quick to create a "home invasion" statute. Obviously the crimes were brutal but was there anything wrong with the current statutes pertaining to burglary, rape, murder, etc.? No, but the politicians felt like they needed to do something.