One minute Toyota driver Bulent Ezal was admiring the dramatic view as he stopped his car on a cliff-top overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
The next, his car was racing out of control, through a fence towards the edge as he pressed helplessly on the brake.
For a few terrifying seconds that will forever haunt him, the retired engineer and his wife, Anne, were taken on a joyride by their 2005 Toyota Camry, unable to halt it as it was accelerated into a high speed death-run.
"The car took off with extreme force, pushing me back into my seat," recalled Mr Ezal, 75. "In no time it had cleared the kerb and was racing across a piece of land no wider than 23 feet. The last thing I remember was my wife screaming and I was looking at the clear blue sky."
His account is the most dramatic so far of anyone who has experienced a runaway Toyota - the make of vehicle some of whose models were recalled in their thousands last week - and survived to tell the tale.
"By the time I remember opening my eyes, I wasn't able to figure out where I was," he told The Sunday Telegraph. "I said to myself, 'I must have been in an accident,' because my feet were wet in the car. Then I heard voices."
It was the sound of firefighters and paramedics, who spent more than two hours cutting him from the wreckage as the waves crashed around them. Pinned amid the twisted metal, the car upside down on the edge of the surf with its roof caved in, all he knew was that she was silent.
In flipping upside down as it tumbled, the vehicle's roof had caved in around Mr Ezal's head. "I was in a pancake situation, I could only look straight," he said.
"I wanted to see her but I wasn't able. I heard one of the rescue personnel say 'We'll take him out first' and that was the first I realised that my wife was there."
Nearly three years after the accident at Pismo Beach, California, his voice still trembled as he added: "I was at the hospital when I finally found out. A police officer came to question me; he told me that my wife was dead."
Mr Ezal and his wife had been driving the coast road at Pismo Beach that day as part of a scouting mission after deciding that they would move from their home in Bakersfield to be nearer their son and his family in Santa Barbara. Their grand-daughter, Jazlyn, was aged three at the time and now has a brother Tarkan, two.
"My wife never knew her grandson," said Mr Ezal.
An analysis of complaints recorded by America's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows that Toyota Camrys made from 2002 to 2006 have generated more complaints of unintended acceleration than any other Toyota model, according to Donald Slavik, a lawyer handling Mr Ezal's wrongful death lawsuit against the Japanese car firm, filed in a California court.
Mr Slavik said: "Neither of the two recalls that Toyota has issued cover his vehicle and even if they did they wouldn't cover the problem that he had.
"The engine went to surge and, from the best description he's given, it went to wide open throttle. It accelerated very strongly and very hard, and while he had his foot on the brake for a significant period of five to 10 seconds."
A "brake-to-idle" feature, which provides a fail-safe for drivers when cars surge out of control, has never been fitted in the 2002-2006 Camry.
Mr Ezal's lawsuit alleges: "Toyota had unfettered ability, after years of extensive in-house, government and independent testing, to minimise the substantial risk of serious bodily harm or death caused by the subject Camry by redesigning or warning of the potential for serious risk or harm. Toyota consciously chose not to take such steps." Toyota is contesting the case and both sides are awaiting a date for trial.
Meanwhile in Harris County District Court in Houston, Texas, a separate lawsuit tells of a tragedy involving a different model: a 2009 Toyota Corolla, driven by mother-of-two Trina Harris. That car is among those now recalled by Toyota.
Mrs Harris had briefly driven to the shops near her Houston home on December 18 last year when problems struck. "She was almost home, five blocks away, such a short distance," said her husband, US Navy Petty Officer Michael Harris.
"All we have is what the police officer gave us on the report. He speculated that the car was going at an accelerated rate and, still accelerating, went through a stop sign, two car lanes from the Hardy toll road and slammed into the cement wall."
There were no skid marks to indicate that the vehicle had slowed, and estimates put the final speed at between 80mph and 100mph at the time of impact. Prior to the accident, Mrs Harris had twice mentioned to her husband that she had encountered problems with the accelerator sometimes moving on its own.
"She said it was extremely hard for her to stop the car. We would say she just had to get used to driving a brand new car, that's what we put it down to," he explained. "We didn't have any indication there was a major problem with the car. If we had known, the car would have been taken in right away."
He adds: "What we want now are the facts. We want to know what happened because my whole family has no answer... If Toyota is responsible then we want them accountable."
Mr Harris, who is based aboard the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier in San Diego, California, and has served in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, is now on leave to be with his daughters, aged 13 and 14.
"We stay up to late hours at night, a lot of talking, a lot of prayer," he said, adding that he and his wife - known to friends as Mama Trina for her nurturing manner - met as High School sweethearts.
"I can't count the emotions, every emotion I didn't know existed. With her gone, more than half of me is gone. I was the hunter, I went out and provided for the family; she was the caretaker. A hug and a kiss from her could make the whole day go better. Trina and the girls were the most important things on the earth to me," he said.
"Many nights I lie there and ask God if I can put myself in that seat and trade places with her. I'd do it in a heartbeat so she could still be here for the kids. Her one life touched more than a thousand; now with this it's reaching millions."
SOURCE
Now Honda recalls 172,000 cars over fire scare as Toyota's attempt to calm safety fears backfires
|
