They walk among us...again

On Sep 3, 1:46*pm, "Tom $herman (-_-)" <""twshermanREMOVE\"@THI
$southslope.net"> wrote:
> On 9/3/2012 3:13 PM, Ashton Crusher wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Wed, 29 Aug 2012 20:11:47 -0700 (PDT), Harry K
> > > wrote:
>
> >> Recent clip on evening news. *Runaway car with stuck gas pedel, driver
> >> on phone with dispatch. *Goes on for a long time and she reaches 120
> >> passing cars on the shouilder etc. *Dispatch finally tells her to pull
> >> up on the gas pedal and step on brake at same time!!!
>
> >> Neat trick. *I couldn't reach my gas pedal an still control the car at
> >> 120 on my best day.
>
> >> Neither of the morons thought of the simple solution TURN IT OFF,
> >> STUPID!
>
> >> Harry K
>
> > Just watched the video again and noticed something interesting.... The
> > woman claimed she had put the emergency brake on and it didn't help.
> > She also said something about the brakes and one would presume she
> > tried braking. *The announcer, not the woman, claims she couldn't
> > shift out of drive.. but nowhere do we hear the woman say that.
>
> > As we see the SUV roll to a stop from the cop dash cam video there is
> > no smoke at all as you might expect of the emergency brake had been on
> > for several miles at 100+ mph. The woman stated that when she pulled
> > the accel pedal up the vehicle slowed down real fast. *Why would it do
> > that if there were no brakes applied?? *But the oddest thing to me was
> > that as the SUV is seen coming to a stop and the woman getting out you
> > see it start to roll again and the cop jumps in, you see the brake
> > lights come on, and it jerks to a stop. *The lack of any smoke from
> > the brakes, and the fact that they seemed to work normally for the cop
> > makes me think she had not even tried hard braking to get the SUV
> > stopped and that she never fully applied the emergency brake. *From my
> > armchair I'd have to chalk this up to *basic stupidity on the part of
> > the woman - she shouldn't need to be told to pull up on the pedal and
> > it's inconceivable that she could not *have simply put it in neutral
> > or just shut the engine off.
>
> Cool. *So I can disable the throttle return spring on my CBR600F4i and
> scream down the freeway at 157 mph and not get a ticket?
>
> The woman should lose her driving license for incompetence, and/or
> reckless driving.
>
> Too bad DHS did not stop her with a Hellfire missile for her act of
> Domestic Terrorism™.
>
> Of course, if the vehicle had a sensible manual transmission and/or kill
> switch, this would not be an issue.
>
> --
> Tºm Shermªn - 42.435731°N, 83.985007°W
> Post Free or Die!

There were some _very_ good demonstrations of outstanding car handling
during the video. taking the grassy meridian to avoid traffic at over
100 mph? Pretty good driving! How much of that was "stuck gas pedal"
vs "out for a fun time"?

Harry K

On 9/3/2012 10:55 PM, Harry K wrote:
> On Sep 3, 1:46�pm, "Tom $herman (-_-)" <""twshermanREMOVE\"@THI
> $southslope.net"> wrote:
>> On 9/3/2012 3:13 PM, Ashton Crusher wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>> On Wed, 29 Aug 2012 20:11:47 -0700 (PDT), Harry K
>>> > wrote:
>>
>>>> Recent clip on evening news. �Runaway car with stuck gas pedel, driver
>>>> on phone with dispatch. �Goes on for a long time and she reaches 120
>>>> passing cars on the shouilder etc. �Dispatch finally tells her to pull
>>>> up on the gas pedal and step on brake at same time!!!
>>
>>>> Neat trick. �I couldn't reach my gas pedal an still control the car at
>>>> 120 on my best day.
>>
>>>> Neither of the morons thought of the simple solution TURN IT OFF,
>>>> STUPID!
>>
>>>> Harry K
>>
>>> Just watched the video again and noticed something interesting.... The
>>> woman claimed she had put the emergency brake on and it didn't help.
>>> She also said something about the brakes and one would presume she
>>> tried braking. �The announcer, not the woman, claims she couldn't
>>> shift out of drive.. but nowhere do we hear the woman say that.
>>
>>> As we see the SUV roll to a stop from the cop dash cam video there is
>>> no smoke at all as you might expect of the emergency brake had been on
>>> for several miles at 100+ mph. The woman stated that when she pulled
>>> the accel pedal up the vehicle slowed down real fast. �Why would it do
>>> that if there were no brakes applied?? �But the oddest thing to me was
>>> that as the SUV is seen coming to a stop and the woman getting out you
>>> see it start to roll again and the cop jumps in, you see the brake
>>> lights come on, and it jerks to a stop. �The lack of any smoke from
>>> the brakes, and the fact that they seemed to work normally for the cop
>>> makes me think she had not even tried hard braking to get the SUV
>>> stopped and that she never fully applied the emergency brake. �From my
>>> armchair I'd have to chalk this up to �basic stupidity on the part of
>>> the woman - she shouldn't need to be told to pull up on the pedal and
>>> it's inconceivable that she could not �have simply put it in neutral
>>> or just shut the engine off.
>>
>> Cool. �So I can disable the throttle return spring on my CBR600F4i and
>> scream down the freeway at 157 mph and not get a ticket?
>>
>> The woman should lose her driving license for incompetence, and/or
>> reckless driving.
>>
>> Too bad DHS did not stop her with a Hellfire missile for her act of
>> Domestic Terrorism�.
>>
>> Of course, if the vehicle had a sensible manual transmission and/or kill
>> switch, this would not be an issue.
>>
>> --
>> T�m Sherm�n - 42.435731�N, 83.985007�W
>> Post Free or Die!
>
> There were some _very_ good demonstrations of outstanding car handling
> during the video. taking the grassy meridian to avoid traffic at over
> 100 mph? Pretty good driving! How much of that was "stuck gas pedal"
> vs "out for a fun time"?

And no evidence of failed brakes. Even the crappy 4-wheel drum brakes
of the muscle cars of the mid-1960's could over-power the 425+ lb-ft of
torque the engines were capable of.

Maybe the cops rightly realized that they had no chance of getting a
conviction in front of the typical jury comprised of the poorly educated
and closed minded.

--
Tºm Shermªn - 42.435731°N, 83.985007°W
Post Free or Die!

On 9/3/2012 8:54 PM, Arif Khokar wrote:

> I assume it's still possible to remove the key and lock the wheel
> while the car is in motion.

I tried this with my MY 2000 car with a manual transmission. I was able
to take the key out and lock the steering wheel while the car was in
motion. I don't know if this is still possible in newer cars with a
manual transmission.

On Tue, 04 Sep 2012 18:50:06 -0400, Arif Khokar >
wrote:

>On 9/3/2012 8:54 PM, Arif Khokar wrote:
>
>> I assume it's still possible to remove the key and lock the wheel
>> while the car is in motion.
>
>I tried this with my MY 2000 car with a manual transmission. I was able
>to take the key out and lock the steering wheel while the car was in
>motion. I don't know if this is still possible in newer cars with a
>manual transmission.

But you had to press a button to do so. It was not something that
would happen inadvertently.

On 9/4/2012 9:08 PM, Ashton Crusher wrote:
> On Tue, 04 Sep 2012 18:50:06 -0400, Arif Khokar >
> wrote:
>
>> On 9/3/2012 8:54 PM, Arif Khokar wrote:
>>
>>> I assume it's still possible to remove the key and lock the wheel
>>> while the car is in motion.
>>
>> I tried this with my MY 2000 car with a manual transmission. I was able
>> to take the key out and lock the steering wheel while the car was in
>> motion. I don't know if this is still possible in newer cars with a
>> manual transmission.
>
> But you had to press a button to do so. It was not something that
> would happen inadvertently.

I had to turn the key and push it in to turn it to the lock position so
that I could take it out, IIRC. I didn't have to push any separate
button.

On Sep 4, 6:31*pm, Arif Khokar > wrote:
> On 9/4/2012 9:08 PM, Ashton Crusher wrote:
>
> > On Tue, 04 Sep 2012 18:50:06 -0400, Arif Khokar >
> > wrote:
>
> >> On 9/3/2012 8:54 PM, Arif Khokar wrote:
>
> >>> I assume it's still possible to remove the key and lock the wheel
> >>> while the car is in motion.
>
> >> I tried this with my MY 2000 car with a manual transmission. *I was able
> >> to take the key out and lock the steering wheel while the car was in
> >> motion. *I don't know if this is still possible in newer cars with a
> >> manual transmission.
>
> > But you had to press a button to do so. *It was not something that
> > would happen inadvertently.
>
> I had to turn the key and push it in to turn it to the lock position so
> that I could take it out, IIRC. *I didn't have to push any separate
> button.

So it still took a deliberate effort to get to lock, simply turning
the key wouldn't do it. It would probably be an automatic, ingrained
habit though to push in while turning.

Grossly OT but a bit of trivia. When did Plymouth finally give up on
that asinine backwards thread on the
right side of the cars? I had a 72 Valiant that a stupid tire shop
ruined one hub trying to remove a wheel the wrong way..
I assume it was alos the same on Chrysler, Dodge, etc from that
company.

Harry K

On 9/4/2012 11:50 PM, Harry K wrote:
> On Sep 4, 6:31 pm, Arif Khokar > wrote:
>> On 9/4/2012 9:08 PM, Ashton Crusher wrote:
>>
>>> On Tue, 04 Sep 2012 18:50:06 -0400, Arif Khokar >
>>> wrote:
>>
>>>> On 9/3/2012 8:54 PM, Arif Khokar wrote:
>>
>>>>> I assume it's still possible to remove the key and lock the wheel
>>>>> while the car is in motion.
>>
>>>> I tried this with my MY 2000 car with a manual transmission. I was able
>>>> to take the key out and lock the steering wheel while the car was in
>>>> motion. I don't know if this is still possible in newer cars with a
>>>> manual transmission.
>>
>>> But you had to press a button to do so. It was not something that
>>> would happen inadvertently.
>>
>> I had to turn the key and push it in to turn it to the lock position so
>> that I could take it out, IIRC. I didn't have to push any separate
>> button.
>
> So it still took a deliberate effort to get to lock, simply turning
> the key wouldn't do it. It would probably be an automatic, ingrained
> habit though to push in while turning.

I checked again just now. What I posted earlier about having to push
the key in was incorrect. I could simply turn the ignition to the off
position and pull the key out. The steering wheel won't lock as long as
the key is in the ignition, but it will after removing it.

Again, this is a MY 2000 vehicle (over a decade old), so this may not be
an issue in more recent models.

Ashton Crusher wrote:

> On Sun, 02 Sep 2012 17:11:34 -0700, "Paul Hovnanian P.E."
> > wrote:
>
>>Ashton Crusher wrote:
>>
>>[snip]
>>>
>>> AFAIK the federal safety standard for steering wheel interlocks
>>> specifically requires that they cannot be put into lock position
>>> unless they are placed in park first. Aside from turning off the
>>> engine, putting it in neutral is certainly the way to go.
>>
>>How old is the car? What was the applicable federal standard at the time?
>>
>>Not questions I'd like to ask with a panic'd driver on the phone.
>
> The car for this thread was nearly new from the looks of it in the
> video. The standard has been around since the late sixties.

I don't think so. I had an early '80s Chevette (company car) with an A/T. I
had the alternator mounting bracket break free while driving (big noise
with the alternator banging around loose in the engine compartment.

I popped it into neutral and cranked the key all the way off. The steering
locked (while I was still doing about 20 MPH and I veered off the road into
a field before I could get the steering unlocked again.

--
Paul Hovnanian
------------------------------------------------------------------
In theory, practice and theory are the same, but in practice they
are different -- Larry McVoy

On Sep 4, 11:50*pm, Harry K > wrote:
> When did Plymouth finally give up on
> that asinine backwards thread on the
> right side of the cars? *I had a 72 Valiant that a stupid tire shop
> ruined one hub trying to remove a wheel the wrong way..
> I assume it was alos the same on Chrysler, Dodge, etc from that
> company.

I think every US manufacturer featured R-side L-hand thread wheel
studs at one time or another.
-----

- gpsman

On Sep 7, 5:13*pm, gpsman > wrote:
> On Sep 4, 11:50*pm, Harry K > wrote:
>
> > When did Plymouth finally give up on
> > that asinine backwards thread on the
> > right side of the cars? *I had a 72 Valiant that a stupid tire shop
> > ruined one hub trying to remove a wheel the wrong way..
> > I assume it was alos the same on Chrysler, Dodge, etc from that
> > company.
>
> I think every US manufacturer featured R-side L-hand thread wheel
> studs at one time or another.
> *-----
>
> - gpsman

Not gm or ford after the mid 30s at least.

Harry K