Who’s to blame?

Here we go again, Toyota is recalling a whole bunch of cars around the world.

The problem this time is a brake fluid leak at the master brake cylinder, resulting in a spongy or soft brake pedal feel and, logically, a loss of braking performance as the level of brake fluid gets lower.
Now this kinda kicks people back to the controversial Toyota recall in 2009 concerning the “sticky” accelerator pedal flaw. The controversy then was that, apparently, Toyota had known about this defect but had kept it under wraps, and deaths occurred because of it.

Most people have heard that phone call that was put up on Youtube, where the passenger of a defective Toyota calls the highway patrol, saying the car’s accelerator is stuck. The phone call tragically ends when they reach an intersection and crash.
Now as much as the defect caused this accident, the question is: couldn’t the driver had done anything to prevent it?

I believe so. In order to prevent an accident in such a situation, all you need is some very basic car knowledge:
All cars, whether manual or automatic, have a neutral gear (“N” on automatic cars). When in neutral, no gear is engaged, meaning that the engine does not power the wheels anymore. You can rev up to the red line as much as you want, the car will not move.
Putting this in the sticky pedal situation, when you realize that the car keeps on accelerating on its own, push the gear selector to “N” in an automatic car, or clutch in and disengage the stick shift from a gear for manual transmissions – it’s better to bring it to neutral instead of keeping the clutch in because you don’t want to release inadvertently the pedal when the engine is in full rev, it won’t help you stopping.
At this point, the engine will probably “yell” all it can at the red line; let it be, in this situations, the engine is the least of your worries. You can now coast to the road shoulder, come to a stop safely and finally turn the engine off.
It is better to cut the ignition only once the car is stopped as doing this before stopping the car will rid you of power steering and more importantly, braking assistance such as ABS.

Today’s brake leak flaw is, to me, a lesser issue than a sticky accelerator pedal as it is a problem that happens over a longer period of time. As much as having the accelerator pedal stuck is an instant problem that requires immediate action, the brake fluid leak will manifest itself over a few months, and the driver will feel the difference in the pedal feel, as he or she will have to press gradually more and more to come to a stop. By then, common sense, more than education (I hope), will get the driver to talk to his or her reseller or garage, and one quick check on the brake fluid level (part of the basic routine check at any garage) will reveal the problem, leading to the discovery of the leak. As said during their press release, Toyota will bear the repair costs, so if your car is one of the recalled models (you’ll receive an official letter from Toyota inviting you to send your car for repair), you won’t event have to fork out a cent.

The reason why 13 different models are being recalled today is simply because all of them share the same brake system.
Recalls are a common thing in the car industry, and every manufacturer faces, sooner or later, the need to recall certain models to fix issues that have not been found during the car’s development. Most recalls go by unnoticed as the problems are usually fixed during the car’s normal maintenance as they are judged to not compromise the safety of the passengers. Others issues that can put lives at risk have an official recall campaign for safety.

My opinion is that this recall might not have needed an official recall campaign, as it leads to a slow and gradual problem, and can very probably be fixed during normal car maintenance, but Toyota decided to make it a campaign to prevent a situation like last year. At least it shows that the Japanese manufacturer has learnt his lesson and will make sure to put people’s safety first, at their own costs.

To finish this lesson, I would say that, yes, manufacturers can be blamed, but everybody makes mistakes, and defects can never fully be detected, we’re all humans in the end. But if people were more properly educated about cars, as in if driving schools taught people at least the basics of what to do in emergency situations, instead of pummeling driving student’s heads because they are driving at 53kph instead of 50kph, we could save some lives that were taken during accidents that could have been prevented through basic car knowledge.