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LINO LAKES, Minn. Ever since his 1996 Toyota Camry shot up an interstate ramp, plowing into the back of an Oldsmobile in a horrific crash that killed three people, Koua Fong Lee insisted he had done everything he could to stop the car.
A jury didn't believe him, and a judge sentenced him to eight years in prison. But now, new revelations of safety problems with Toyotas have Lee pressing to get his case reopened and his freedom restored. Relatives of the victims who condemned Lee at his sentencing three years ago now believe he is innocent and are planning to sue Toyota. The prosecutor who sent Lee to prison said he thinks the case merits another look.
"I know 100 percent in my heart that I took my foot off the gas and that I was stepping on the brakes as hard as possible," Lee said in an interview Wednesday at the state prison in Lino Lakes. "When the brakes were looked at and we were told that nothing was wrong with the brakes, I was shocked."
Heard this a week or so ago. I'm first surprised it got the time in prison and now it does merit looking at. The car is still in the impound lot.
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John Adams The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.
Ronald Reagan: 'Everybody that is for abortion has already been born'
"I never said I was worth it. I only said I wouldn't do it for less " William F. Buckley Jr.
If you heard the testimony of the woman in front of the government committee, it isn't hard to imagine her killing a lot of people, had she had a mite less luck the day it happened to her.
If you heard the testimony of the woman in front of the government committee, it isn't hard to imagine her killing a lot of people, had she had a mite less luck the day it happened to her.
Or if she just popped the car into neutral nothing woulda happened...
Why didn't Ford and Firestone get hauled before congress when all those tires were blowing up and rolling all those Explorers??
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I love Christmas lights. They remind me of the people who voted for Obama. They all hang together; half of them don't work, and the ones that do, aren't that bright.
For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do
not understand, no explanation is possible.
A golf course is a willful and deliberate misuse of a perfectly good rifle range.
Or if she just popped the car into neutral nothing woulda happened...
You expect a blissninnie who is doing her nails and talking on a cell phone to think of that. Told my wife to do the same thing if her Camry ran away. It went totally over her head the first few times i explained it. Finally she understood that if you put it in neutral the car will cease to run away.
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Why didn't Ford and Firestone get hauled before congress when all those tires were blowing up and rolling all those Explorers??
But sir: Ford cars and Firestone tires are made in America by union labor. My old boss called them "Exploders" and he had i fit when i rented one for a jobsite.
You expect a blissninnie who is doing her nails and talking on a cell phone to think of that. Told my wife to do the same thing if her Camry ran away. It went totally over her head the first few times i explained it. Finally she understood that if you put it in neutral the car will cease to run away.
But sir: Ford cars and Firestone tires are made in America by union labor. My old boss called them "Exploders" and he had i fit when i rented one for a jobsite.
I know, she had time to call her husband, tell him what was happening, but still couldn't figure out how to stop the car...
And yep, we called them "Exploders" too...they 4-wheel pretty good also...
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I love Christmas lights. They remind me of the people who voted for Obama. They all hang together; half of them don't work, and the ones that do, aren't that bright.
For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do
not understand, no explanation is possible.
A golf course is a willful and deliberate misuse of a perfectly good rifle range.
Why didn't Ford and Firestone get hauled before congress when all those tires were blowing up and rolling all those Explorers??
Ummmm........ They did.
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This past September (9/6/00), the key players in the Firestone drama, Bridgestone/Firestone CEO Masatoshi Ono and his Ford counterpart , Jac Nasser, appeared before the U.S. Congress. "I come before you to apologize to you, the American people and especially to the families who have lost loved ones in these terrible rollover accidents," said Ono. "I also come to accept full and personal responsibility for the events that led to this hearing."
This may be regarded by many as a case of "too little, too late." In October, Firestone voluntarily recalled 6.5 million 15-inch ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT series tires used mainly on Ford's Explorer SUV. The companies had allegedly known of problems with the tires for several years, but did not alert federal safety agencies. Even as Ford was recalling tires last year on vehicles sold overseas, American consumers were being killed in crashes attributed to failures of the same tire models.
The hearing marked the first attempt by Congress to grapple with the policy implications of the Firestone recall. Lawmakers said reforms could range from criminal penalties for auto companies that fail to report problems, to upgrading 30-year-old tire safety standards that predate radials, to launching a major federal effort to reduce the risk of rollover crashes for sport-utility vehicles. Sorting out the ideas and enacting some of them into law could take months.
Nasser sought to distance Ford from what he termed as "a tire issue, not a vehicle issue." Ford executives testified that the company had received repeated assurances from Firestone that tires used in the United States were not experiencing problems. Firestone said it believed tire failures in Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and more than a dozen other countries were the result of harsh local conditions and misuse by consumers.
Bridgestone/Firestone Inc removed chief Executive Masatoshi Ono on October 10 and replaced him with its No. 2 executive, John Lampe. He becomes the first American since 1991 to head the U.S. subsidiary of ***anese giant Bridgestone Corporation. Lampe immediately announced a restructuring plan for the company and expressed regrets for the auto accidents involving Firestone tires and mostly Ford Explorer sport-utility vehicles that have killed at least 101 people. He also suggested that the Ford Motor Company's Explorer may itself be partly to blame for the crashes.
"I think anybody who's looked at the statistics, anyone who's reviewed the government data, understands that only a very small percentage of Ford Explorer accidents or rollover accidents have been attributed to tires, whether it's our tire or others-a very small percentage. To say that our tires are the only reason for the Ford Explorer accidents, the rollovers, is very unfair."
Analysts said the promotion of an American to run a ***anese-owned firm was a significant move. "When you look at everything that's going on in the ***anese business community between Renault and Nissan, and Ford and Mazda, it does seem that finally there's integration of ***anese companies to the global arena," said David Andrea, an auto analyst at CSM Worldwide in Northville, Michigan. Takashi Tomioka, senior automotive analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research America in New York, said: "I think it's a public relations move to make clearer to Americans that it's an American company."
Lampe was the first Bridgestone/Firestone executive to admit in congressional testimony that the company had produced defective tires. He said he is assembling a new management team and instituting new methods of collecting and analyzing field data. The company has been criticized for lackadaisical collecting of accident and other claims data, and for not knowing what to do with it. "We will not rest until we have determined the root cause or causes of the accidents, continuing to work with government agencies and outside experts to ensure that a situation like this never happens again," Lampe said.
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I love Christmas lights. They remind me of the people who voted for Obama. They all hang together; half of them don't work, and the ones that do, aren't that bright.
For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do
not understand, no explanation is possible.
A golf course is a willful and deliberate misuse of a perfectly good rifle range.
Or if she just popped the car into neutral nothing woulda happened...
Why didn't Ford and Firestone get hauled before congress when all those tires were blowing up and rolling all those Explorers??
A car in neutral screaming at high rpms doesn't sound like nothing would happen.
I'd think anyone would be grabing the wheel hard for leverage on the brakes and not even sure if the car would just pop out of gear with that much force going on.
Any body want to recreate it?
Depending on how quick I'd be I'd turn it off. Don't think I'd be all that quick. Why I like farm fields around me as much as possible. Let her get buried out in the dirt some where. Pitty people who live in busy towns.
The "Toyota defense?"
