re: Unintended Accelleration

["George & Deanna Achorn" <coolidge@tidalwave.net>]

    The study at UC Irvine I believe had the gas pedal swapped with the
brakes to see what they would do when they hit the brake and the car
accellerated. The result was, they pushed harder. Another factor was that
all cars have some degree of claimed unintended accelleration by owners
(albeit perhaps clueless owners). Still, they said that cars like the Honda
Civic (pedals close together) had a similar rate as Audi, whereas big cars
like a Crown Victoria (whose pedals are miles apart) had a lesser rate.
    Finally, there is one overburdening piece of evidence that can disprove
the case. Brakes and accelleration are not on the same system, so the
chances of both completely failing on a car are worse than winning the
lottery. On top of that, ALL CARS ON THE ROAD, are designed so that the
brake system can overpower the accelleration (torque of the engine). R&T or
maybe C&D also tested this, all three of the big 3 auto magazines had
articles that dispelled this. I had them, and if I can dig them up I will
post it to the list. Anyway, they got in an Audi 5000 and put one foot on
the gas, began accellerating, held it there floored, and then applied the
brake. Guess what, the car stopped, every time. Go figure. Later-G