The tragedy of Santee....does your Lexus have a mind of its own?

On August 28 2009, a Lexus ES350 driven by off-duty CHP officer Mark Saylor crashed at very high speed off of an embankement in Santee, California. The crash claimed the life of Saylor, his wife Cleode, his daughter daughter Mahala, and brother-in-law Chris Lastrella.

The Lexus apparently was accelerating out of control at speeds of over 100mph. A phone call to 911 emergency dispatch from Saylor's wife described a car that was accelerating out of control.

Subsequent investigation unearthed numerous accounts of similar experiences by other Lexus and Toyota owners. The official cause is determined to be incorrect securing of all-weather floor mats. These floor mats can cover the throttle pedal causing it to get caught in an accellerative position. Owners of 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus cars have been advised to remove the all-weather floor mats from their vehicles.

In the Santee case, there has been significant discussion about the difficulties faced by Mark Saylor during that hellish high-speed run. Questions as to why he didn't simply put the car in neutral have gone unanswered. There are also inquiries as to why Saylor, a 20 year veteran safety inspection officer with the California Highway Patrol, didn't just turn the key to the off position.

I can answer that, he didn't turn the key off because the Lexus ES350 doesn't have an ignition key. The Lexus GS, LS, IS, LX, and RX models don't either. In fact, only 3 of Lexus' 14 current model lines have good old fashioned ignition keys. The rest feature what is called 'Push Button Start'.

I am a Lexus owner, I drive a 1998 GS400. On a recent trip for service, the dealer loaned me a IS250 for the day. This IS250 came standard with the Push Button Start feature.

According to Lexus' website, the Push Button Start feature uses a 'SmartAccess' key which transmits a signal to the vehicle when you are in close proximity to the vehicle. Mind you, a button on the fob still needs to be pushed to open the doors or trunk, but once inside you don't have to insert the key into an ignition lock.

Instead, the car senses that you are in the vehicle and you press a big red button on the dash to start (or stop) the engine. Personally, I found this to be strange and gimmicky; I would pull the fob out of my pocket to open the doors, then put it back in my pocket or throw my keys into the cupholder and start the car with the button. When getting out, I either grabbed the keys again out of the cupholder or took them back out of my pocket to lock the doors. This ended up being a fiddily process. It created extra steps for me. It wasn't any more convenient, in fact somewhat the reverse. I can't figure out any advantage to the feature.

So again, it begs the question, why didn't the late Mr. Saylor simply push the Start button to turn that errant ES350's engine off allowing him to coast to the side of the road?

Because pushing the button doesn't stop the car once its in drive and rolling....at least not for 3 seconds anyway. Push and hold the button down for 3 seconds and the engine will indeed turn off. I stopped typing for a few moments after that last sentence, trying to comprehend the stupidity of this caveat.

So let's see....you are driving a car that is accellerating out of control at 100mph. You need to take one of your hands off of the wheel, feel around for the Start button and hold it down for 3 seconds to turn the engine off?

At 100mph, you would be travelling approximately 147 feet per second, times 3 seconds equalls about 440 ft. That my friends, is around 150 yards, or the length of one and a half football fields. In this time, the car would still be accelerating, and only AFTER that football field and a half would the engine turn off. You then must haul the car down from speed.....with cooked and fading brakes. Add another several hundred feet. Don't forget, you lose power brake assist when the engine switches off too.

Now which action sounds safer to you? Is it reaching up and turning an ignition key, which has been ingrained into every American driver's psyche since day one of driving school, or is it hunting around for a dash button to hold down for 3 seconds while you one-handedly pilot an out of control car at extra-legal speeds? What if you're just a passenger and your driver either passes out or loses their marbles?

The above sequence assumes you know about the 3-second rule at all. A quick stop by my local Lexus dealer didn't reveal an ES350 owner's manual, but I did find a New Vehicle Delivery Certificate. The certificate states that the car has been inspected and driven to ensure quality. It also states that the salesman will explain operation of the car's features, such as Bluetooth, Parking Assist, etc.

One thing was not on that list though....an explanation of the Start-Stop button.

So there you go, perhaps the single most important piece of knowledge you need to keep yourself out of harm's way is not on the checklist. I personally didn't receive any instruction about it on my IS250 loaner, nor was it any kind of common knowledge on the automotive bulletin boards. The lack of logic in this just staggers me, especially considering how much effort carmakers put into their vehicles to market them as "safe" these days. One can only assume Lexus engineered the feature this way to prevent accidental switching off of the engine. Fair enough, but perhaps a 1 second interval would do the trick?

I can't even think who would figure out the 3 rule in a stressful situation like that. As a former computer engineer, I am used to start button override periods on computers, so its possible I'd just do it naturally. This cannot be expected of everyone else though; how many times have you had to hold the power button down on a piece of equipment to turn it off?  Can you remember even once?

Its only a matter of time before lawyers here in America jump on this, as they should. As wonderful as the engineering is in cars these days, it also bears the responsibility of protecting the occupants in every situation, no matter how improbable.