Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

Correlation of age and accidents being overlooked

I am a retired engineer formerly trained and qualified to conduct industrial accident investigations at the Nevada Test Site. The Las Vegas Sun’s Sunday article about the Toyota Camry “acceleration” accident was disappointing because it did not thoroughly delve into the issue of driver age. There is a gorilla in the room that no one wants to discuss. The vast majority of drivers reporting Toyota “acceleration problems” are from 61 to 80 years old.

Yet the average age of Toyota owners/drivers is 46.6, which is slightly younger than the average age of all automobile owners.

This large age disparity is strong and convincing evidence that there is some kind of human factor involved and not a mechanical/electronic failure. If it were a mechanical or electronic failure, then acceleration problems would occur equally to drivers of all ages, not mostly to senior drivers. I will be 60 on my next birthday, so don’t think of this as “senior bashing.”

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