Toyota Highlander pounds the front of a house... twice!

[alter ego]

Oh lawd.

 

[kookcle]

TOYOTA responds

There are, as they say, two sides to every story, so after we posted a video on Monday showing what an owner claimed to be a case of unintended acceleration causing her Toyota Highlander to crash into a house twice, Toyota reached out to us revealing some additional information about the incident.

Following this crash, which took place back in November, Toyota had this Highlander inspected and pulled data from its Event Data Recorder (EDR), or Black Box as we've come to call it. Not only was this the first time we've seen a claim of unintended acceleration like this caught on video, but now, also a first, we have actual data showing what the vehicle itself recorded during this frightening ordeal.

Brian Lyons, Toyota Communications Manager for Safety and Quality, first gave us some information about the Highlander in question, including the fact that it was a 2012 model. The 2012 Highlander came from the factory with a brake override system, meaning it was not part of the company's initiative in 2010 to add the system to all 2011 models. Also, after looking at the data from the EDR, he said – as many of you pointed out in the comments for the previous post – that the "brake pedal was never touched." In the video, you can see that the crossover's brake lights never come on, and the EDR's data backs this up.

The data pulled from the EDR – posted in the gallery below as two images – shows the two "events," which were recorded each time the vehicle impacted the house. In the first event, the data provided by Toyota shows that 3.6 seconds before the impact, the vehicle began to slow down before speeding up to almost 15 miles per hour as it slammed into the house. In the second event, which resulted in a more violent collision with the house, the Highlander reached speeds of almost 30 mph with the engine racing at 4,400 rpm. In both images, it shows that the brake switch was in the "OFF" position the entire time, indicating that the driver was not attempting to press the brake.We asked Toyota if a faulty brake switch would cause the data to show the brake switch "off" and not allow the brake override to operate properly, and Lyons said no. Plus, there is a hard physical connection from the brake pedal to the brakes themselves, so an electrical fault couldn't have kept them from functioning.

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Toyota Responds To Video Of Highlander

 

[deleted]

At least it didn't pound into the back door.

#SODOMY

 

[ohmygosher]

Thank god this happened in the driveway and not on the highway.

 

[franco23x]

Was a women driving, not the cars fault.

 

[bamez]

At least it didn't pound into the back door.

#SODOMY

#SODOMYBUTT

 

[mojodmonky1]

what an idiot driver. Toyota should sue this clown for defamation.

 

[rellireloaded]

dat ambien effect

 

[welcometothetonezone]

2 Pump Champion

 

[2Sky0waY6]

reminds me of this

 

[redjon]

That looks a lil too new to have accelerator issues but I could be wrong. She jus mistook the peddles and panicked. If my accelerator stuck in that situation why not jus bail out the first time when she backed up on when it was stuck in the garage the first or second times the car wasnt moving that fast? You can clearly tell she cant drive by how she pulled in the driveway to begin with.

 

[rellireloaded]

reminds me of this

 

[georgehimself]

Like a glove.

 

[mr marcus]

reminds me of this

 

[maliz]

reminds me of this

I thought dude was going to drive off or properly park the car with ole girl laying on the ground.

 

[sorkoram]

One of my favorite Toyota's

 

[twizzi]

View media item 372741

 

[jayhood23]

That door trolled the snot out of her, closed then opened for the KO