Regular old Americans aren't the only ones who've experienced unexpected car acceleration in Toyotas and other cars. The former administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Jeffrey Runge, just revealed that he was sent scrambling to stop his unidentified German car.
On C-SPAN to explain how drivers should make a complaint to NHTSA, the former Bush car boss surprised the host by saying he had recently filed a complaint, though his former agency never called him back.
He also described how he went about stopping his car by first pulling the carpet away from the accelerator, then putting the car in neutral, then turning the cruise off, and finally the ignition off. "I had a problem," he said.
And even though he didn't get a NHTSA response, he urged motorists to keep reporting to the traffic safety agency. "If nobody tells the agency what's going on they're never going to find a trend."
The agency told us: "National Highway Traffic Safety Administration screens more than 30,000 complaints per year from consumers. The agency takes every complaint seriously and reviews each one carefully. In some cases, an investigator may call to clarify or verify information submitted to the agency. Unfortunately, due to the large volume of reports, a return call is not made for each one. We appreciate Dr. Runge sending us his complaint, and we encourage all consumers to do the same by visiting www.safercar.gov. NHTSA continually reviews prior complaints and relies on new reports from consumers to help identify defect trends in vehicles."
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Reader Comments Read all comments (2)
Autosparky of MI 5:50PM April 12, 2010
c kubisz of NJ 5:04AM April 09, 2010