Originally Posted by rarjar

Not that I'm an expert in accident theories, but personally, I think the key-less ignition requirement to hold the button for 3 seconds before it kills the engine is a more believable causal affect theory as to what actually happened here re.ac.tor.

Pure speculation: he's unfamiliar with the loaner car, accelerator sticks for whatever reason, he pushes the kill button and nothing happens (maybe even a couple of times but never for the required 3 seconds), then tries to put it in neutral, but the sports shifter makes that difficult especially when you're traveling that speed, he slams on the brakes until he burns them up.... then ultimately a tragic fatal accident.

I have to wonder if there's not some other problem with the accelerator on some models. I also can't imagine why they would set a 3 second requirement on the kill button.... after all, for those of us without the key-less system, we don't have a delay if we turn our key off (and I realize that wrong buttons sometimes get pushed, but a 3 second requirement?). Anyhow, I just cannot imagine that this thing boiled down solely to a floor mat holding the accelerator... if it did, then why didn't he just simply reach down and pull it out of the way?