Mismatched floor mats in a Lexus ES 350 dealer courtesy car are being blamed for an August 28 crash that took the lives of Mark Saylor, his wife, daughter and brother-in-law. Saylor, 45, was a 19-year veteran of the California Highway Patrol.
Tomorrow Toyota will issue an order to 1,400 Toyota and Lexus dealerships to inspect the floor mats in all their new, used and loaner vehicles to make sure all mats fit properly.
A non-standard, all-weather floor mat in the driver foot well of the ES 350 apparently became caught under the gas pedal and Saylor wasn't able to free it. The Lexus was reportedly moving at a 120-mph clip on California Highway 125 when it hit an SUV, launched off an embankment and rolled multiple times before bursting into flames. The SUV driver survived with moderate injuries.
It's unclear why Saylor wasn't able to put the transmission in neutral. This story is all the more sad, because a passenger in the car called 911 during the incident reporting that the ES had a stuck accelerator and no brakes. The call ends with someone telling people in the car to hold on and pray, followed by a woman's scream.
cah11705 says:
07:24 PM, 09/15/09
This is a very sad story, but do people realize how simple it is to remedy a stuck brake pedal? There really should be some type of poll because i don't think people realize that. This really is a tragedy though. Thoughts and prayers to the victims family.
roadburner says:
07:36 PM, 09/15/09
It is sad, but the driver must have put his brain in neutral; if both pedals were completely frozen you would still have the transmission and the e-brake to slow the car down. Oh yes, and there's that little known feature called the ignition switch.
srlracing says:
07:44 PM, 09/15/09
Tragic but totally preventable, avoidable, and remedied.
firstwagon says:
08:37 PM, 09/15/09
Wouldn't have a mat caught UNDER the gas pedal hold the pedal up, not down?
Something about the story doesn't ring true.
benson2175 says:
12:44 AM, 09/16/09
Toyotas are already overstuffed with all kind of ridiculous safety gear; if people just learned to drive, learned how their cars work, none of it would be necessary. Try unbuttoning your passengers seatbelt when pulling into a garage or whatever in a Toyota; the beeping is insane and insulting.
tryan says:
04:19 AM, 09/16/09
I've actualy had this happen before in one of my cars and while I was composed enough to shift into neutral and let the engine bounce off the limited while I fixed the problem, I can see how somebody might panic in the situation - especially on the highway. I do feel for the family and this immense tragedy.
On a lighter note, who wants to bet $5 that Toyota got on the horn REAL QUICK to VW/Audi for a consult on how to handle this type of "stuck accelerator" situation....
zoomzoomn says:
04:33 AM, 09/16/09
I hate to be mean spirited in light of an awful tragedy, but seriously? There was enough time to make a 911 call, but not to: 1) slip the car in nuetral 2)turn the ignition off 3)scrub an abuttment wall ... anything but cream an SUV and send one's family off into a deadly crash? And what exactly is a "non-standard" all weather floor mat? Was it not a Toyota accessory mat? If so then why is Toyota mandating an inspection. If it was a dealer's courtesy car, then the dealer is responsible for the non-standard mat being present, not Toyota.
billt9 says:
04:41 AM, 09/16/09
This ES350-floormat-stuck pedal thing is old.
I thought there was as recall for this years ago and warnings not to put 2 mats on top of each other.
i wonder why the driver didn't try stepping on the brakes, which would stop the car.
zoomzoomn says:
04:41 AM, 09/16/09
In other words, Edmunds, your headline is woefully misleading that this is a Toyota problem when it appears in the story that it is not!
wizard8873 says:
05:46 AM, 09/16/09
why not just turn off the car? i feel bad for the family but putting the car in lower gear (while it may have destroyed the engine it could save the lives), putting it in neutral, slamming on the parking and regular brake, or just shutting off the car could have prevented this.
Had this happen in my eclipse except the accelerator was stuck by itself. Turned off the car, pulled over, and then checked what was blocking it. after pulling the pedal up aggressively, it finally stopped acting up.
eventhorizon1 says:
07:03 AM, 09/16/09
This is tragic. I wonder why a veteran of the highway patrol, didnt consider the suggestions you guys offered. I guess panicking really renders you frozen...
j7wild says:
07:27 AM, 09/16/09
Turning off the car would shut down the power steering and then the driver wont be able to steer the car to the side.
firstwagon says:
07:42 AM, 09/16/09
"Turning off the car would shut down the power steering and then the driver wont be able to steer the car to the side."
Not true.
Turning off the engine removes the hydralic boost but you can still steer. At speeds above parking lots it's not even very hard.
With electric power steering the steering would work as normal... unless the driver was dumb enough to completely turn off the electrics.
j7wild says:
07:46 AM, 09/16/09
@ firstwagon:
so you are saying to just turn the ignition key to the first off position but not completely off? Where the instrument panel lights and everything electrical are still on?
I should go find me a deserted road and try that with my car.
j7wild says:
08:03 AM, 09/16/09
the article says the car was "moving at a 120-mph clip on California Highway 125"
so was he speeding or there are parts of California's Highway that have 120 mph speed limit (???)
zoomzoomn says:
10:22 AM, 09/16/09
"By j7wild on September 16, 2009 7:46 AM"
Yes, you can turn the switch back while driving. It will cust the engine off and you will simply coast. Also, on newer cars you cannot turn the key all of the way back to "lock" when the car is in gear so there is no danger of the steering locking. Just make sure you slip the trans into neutral and preferrably come to a stop before trying to restart the car.
heartlessbstrd says:
11:16 AM, 09/16/09
It's a question as old as time itself:
To what degree of operator incompetence should auto manufacturers be responsible for?
canddmeyer says:
04:18 PM, 09/16/09
A California Highway Patrol officer couldn't turn off the ignition? These guys pawn themselves off as professional drivers in a courtroom with supposedly years of training. Does a Lexus have an interlock where the ignition cannot be turned off unless it is in park? Neutral anyone?
We all know floor mats without the eyes for the floor hooks can move forward and pin the accelerator. Who says the floor mats were mismatched? Why no brakes?
To many unanswered questions here. I had this happen when I reversed the floor mats on my 1991 K1500 extended cab from front to rear (they were almost alike). My fault. It happened twice before I figured it out. The first time I was going slow and slammed on the brakes with a roaring engine. The second time I killed the ignition, looked down at the pedals and saw the cause.
friendofmark says:
06:17 PM, 09/19/09
Nice compassion morons. A guy, his wife, his daughter, and his brother-in-law all died in a fiery crash and all you gearheads can do is act like you would have handled it better. Mark is a very old friend of mine and I find your opinions to be offensive and ignorant.
First of all, what the article fails to mention is that the Lexus that he was drivnig was a loaner. I don't know what kind of vehicle he owned, but his was in the shop and so he had a loaner. The Lexus ES 350 has a push button start which he may not have been familiar with if his car didn't also have one. I know that I wouldn't know how to disengae it if I got a loaner. As one comment noted, you have to hold the start button down for 3 seconds to shut the car off.
Furthermore, the 911 call stated that the woman who made the 911 call said that the accelerator was stuck, that the brakes wouldn't work and that they were continuing to accelerate which is probably why the car reahed 100+ MPH, not because he was trying to drive fast.
Maybe it was the fault of the mats being reversed or wrong mats. Maybe the accelerator stuck. Maybe there was an electrical failure.
I would love to see the almighty Toyota eat this one.