Hondas with "unexplained" braking. Pretty serius.. NHTSA investigation

[danny burstein]

It seems that the Feds have just initiated an investigation for some Honda
models that have experienced unexplained... STOPPING.

Per a NY Times story:

N.H.T.S.A. said that including the complaints made to Honda and those filed
with the agency it found 185 examples of "unexpected braking of varying
duration, including several allegations of rapid decelerations from highway
speeds to near stop in highway travel lanes."

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/12/government-investigates-88000-honda-pilots-for-faulty-brakes

to which I wrote the following comment:

Seeing this story now explains an incident I witnessed a month ago. I was
driving on a major highway (3 lanes in each direction) cruising gently
near the speed limit in the right hand lane.

Numerous cars, of course, passed me.

One came up alongside as if to pass, then slowed down. I figured he'd simply
changed his mind. But when I looked back I saw him just sitting there in the
middle lane.

I pulled over to the shoulder as soon as I could and called 911 to report
this _very_ hazardous situation. (The less I say about the 911 call
receiver the better...)

While I was just out of view of the stopped car I saw another one coming
in my direction which had swerved, sideswiped the center median, and then
slid over to the shoulder.

I finished my 911 call and started walking back. After a bit I saw there
was someone already there with flashing lights, so figured they had it
under control.

- now for the kicker... about ten minutes later I got a phone call from
the police officer asking me what I'd seen. He explained that he was with
the swerver and he wanted to verify that there had been a car just sitting
in the road... (By this time I guess the "stuck" car had gotten moving).

- the swerver's car was totalled, but he walked away. Shaken and stirred.
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dan...@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

[Tegger]

danny burstein <dan...@panix.com> wrote in
news:Pine.NEB.4.64.12...@panix5.panix.com:

> It seems that the Feds have just initiated an investigation for some
> Honda models that have experienced unexplained... STOPPING.
>
> Per a NY Times story:
>
> N.H.T.S.A. said that including the complaints made to Honda and those
> filed with the agency it found 185 examples

The NHTSA gets hundreds of thousands of "complaints" every year on a
multitude of "problems", almost all of which turn out to be baseless.

Until the recent Toyota gas-pedal/floor-mat thing, it was customary for the
NHTSA to refuse to respond until at leat a thousand complaints had been
received for the same issue. The 1,000 threshold is the point where an
actual pattern of verifiable problems begins to emerge out of the "white
noise" of false reports.

Unfortunately, media and activist bullying in the wake of the Toyota panic
has resulted in the NHTSA wasting time with the low-volume "white noise"
reports. So, those 185 examples? Meaningless, at this point.


--
Tegger