Brake Problems Old as Time

Toyota is doing damage control, primarily because the audio on this car crash is so horrifying, so vivid, they figure they will lose that case no matter what. But I remember a big brouhaha back in the 80's on 'sudden acceleration syndrome', and the more investigative reporters investigated, the more evidence they found it existed! But in the end, as many people swore on their bible that they were hitting the brake, it turned out that 'pedal misapplication' was the problem. The key is to put the brake on the other side of the car, as in Medicare-mobiles like Cadillac.

PJ O'Roarke discussed this way back in his really funny book, Parliament of the Whores:

Yes the dumb buggers stepped on the gas instead of the brakes. These 'sudden-accelleration incidents' or SAIs closely resemble those sudden-unintelligence incidents, or SUIs, that many of us have experienced with our automobiles, especially when we were in our teens or early twenties...."

Now, if we could just work on a problem particular to Lincoln Continentals: farmer's markets seem to jump right out in front of them.