FRIGHTENED DRIVERS CAN'T REMEMBER SIMPLE STEPS

+ Click to Enlarge THE CRASH THAT BROUGHT IT ALL OUT IN THE OPEN: A Lexus ES350 like this one allegedlyt accelerated out of control to 190km/h and went off the road near San Diego, California, killing an off-duty highway patrolman and three members of his family.

February 9, 2010

You're driving down the highway and suddenly your car starts accelerating on its own. Knuckles white, going from 100 to 140km/h in a couple of seconds, you do what comes naturally - hit the brakes. But what if the car keeps going?

There are options: Put the car in neutral, or in park, or switch off the ignition. But experts say those choices would be almost impossible for most drivers to consider when they're in a panic, because frightened people often can't remember even simple steps to protect themselves.

That - coupled with increasingly complicated gadgetry - makes a car a dangerous place to be when you're facing an unexpected situation.

Drivers have an array of safety features, including push-button stop in some cars. But lack of standardisation further hinders peoples' ability to react to unexpected situations, since they vary from vehicle to vehicle.

Toyota has been criticised over the push-button ignition in Toyota and Lexus vehicles, which requires drivers to hold down the button for three seconds to turn off the vehicle in an emergency. Drivers of Cadillacs and Nissans can shut off the engines by pushing the button more than once.

Paul Green, a research professor at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute said: "The design solution is to make them all work the same way."

Green said there had been little research into the way safety features were laid out: Is it easy to reach down and put the car in neutral? Should neutral be in a different order on the shift quadrant so it's faster or easier to reach?

With push buttons, he said, one of the biggest concerns was whether children would be able to reach over and press them, not whether they were intuitive for drivers to use in an emergency.

Green said vehicles were getting so complex that the extent to which drivers could understand their cars was diminishing. He suggested that the owner's manual and navigation manual for a luxury vehicle could grow to 1000 pages over the next decade.

"Can you imagine anybody reading all that stuff and remembering it?" he asked.

Dr. Boadie Dunlop, a psychiatrist and director of the mood and anxiety programme at Emory University, said: "You're stamping on the brakes and your attention is going to be focused on where you're going and steering. There's no cognitive space left to think of alternatives.

"To do something that's not natural, such as turning off the engine, is just not going to come to mind."

COMPLAINTS GO BACK TO 2003

Toyota said on Tuesday it was recalling about 437 000 Prius and other hybrid vehicles worldwide to fix a problem with brakes that are momentarily unresponsive under certain driving conditions.

That follows its recent recall of five-million vehicles over reports of unintended acceleration and it's changing the accelerator pedals to prevent floor mats from jamming them. But, according to US government filings, complaints about unwanted acceleration in Toyota vehicles go back at least to 2003.

The issue gained new urgency in August 2009, when a high-speed crash near San Diego killed an off-duty California highway patrol officer and three family members.

Mark Saylor's hired Lexus ES350 reached more than 190km/h, struck an SUV, launched off an embankment, rolled several times and burst into flames. The family frantically called 911 from the car, telling the dispatcher the accelerator pedal was stuck and they couldn't stop.

It's not known what exact steps Saylor took in that case but Dunlop said the brain couldn't handle all the information it was getting in such a situation.

BRUSH WITH PANIC

He said: "When people are in an intensely fearful situation, their ability to problem-solve is greatly diminished."

Venkat Thannir, 48, a college instructor from South Carolina had his own brush with panic a few months ago. He was driving his 2010 Toyota Camry out of a car park when it sped up without warning. He panicked for several seconds before pushing hard on the brake pedal and stopping the car.

"The vehicle was out of control," he said. "If I wasn't in a car park, it could have been a whole different story."

Peter Norton, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Houston, said drivers should sit in their cars and go over the steps they could take in an unexpected situation. It's the same reason military personnel practice simulated battles or flight attendants repeat safety instructions on every flight.

Norton said: "It's most helpful for a person to resort to a natural tendency when they go into panic mode. If you practice something over and over, that will be what happens." – Sapa–AP