Vehicle safety investigations dominate headlines -- they get readers to stop what they're doing and pay attention. It happened in the '80s with Audi, it happened just a few years ago with Toyota and its unintended-acceleration related recalls, and now according toBloombergthe same may be happening to Ford with the 2001-2004 Escape compact crossover.
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The National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) is currently investigating about 730,000 2001-2004 Ford Escapeand identical Mazda Tribute SUVs for unintended acceleration after a January crash killed 17-year-old Saige Bloom in Arizona. The initial report on the accident byThe Clay Center Dispatchreported that Bloom, who purchased the 2002 Escape about an hour before the accident, called her mother to tell her that the vehicle's gas pedal was stuck. Police were in pursuit of the vehicle, which was reportedly going between 55 and 60 mph, but could not stop it before it flipped and wrecked, killing the teen. Police believed a mechanical issue caused the accelerator to stick. The 2001-2004 Escape has been recalled in the past for a cruise control cable malfunction.
The NHTSA's current investigation kicked off after Clarence Ditlow, the executive director for the Center for Automotive Safety, wrote a letter to Ford chief Alan Mulally. In his letter, Ditlow asked Mulally to recall all Ford Escapes affected by the previous cruise control cable issue "to avoid more deaths and injuries which would otherwise occur if Ford waits [for the NHTSA to investigate]." The NHTSA has received 99 unintended acceleration complaints regarding the Escape, including 13 crashes, eight injuries, and Bloom's death.
"We offer our deepest sympathies to the Bloom family for their tragic loss," Ford spokeswoman Marcey Zwiebel told us. "We are in the middle of our investigation and have not reached any conclusions. We will work closely with NHTSA to determine the cause of the crash and will take appropriate action if warranted by the outcome of the investigation."
After a 10-month-long investigation by the Department of Transportation, Toyota's troubles were reported to be not the fault of any Toyota electrics systems and the automaker found that most unintended acceleration events were the result of floor mats trapping gas pedals, or accelerator pedal mechanisms that could stick the throttle open.
Source: Bloomberg, The Clay Center Dispatch, Ford, NHTSA
I generally like writing—especially when it’s about cars—but I hate writing about myself. So instead of blathering on about where I was born (New York City, in case you were wondering) or what type of cars I like (all of ’em, as long as it has a certain sense of soul or purpose), I’ll answer the one question I probably get most, right after what’s your favorite car (see above): How’d you get that job? Luck. Well, mostly. Hard work, too. Lots of it. I sort of fell into my major of journalism/mass communication at St. Bonaventure University and generally liked it a lot. In order to complete my degree senior year, we had to spend our last two semesters on some sort of project. Seeing as I loved cars and already spent a good portion of my time reading about cars on sites such as Motor Trend, I opted to create a car blog. I started a Tumblr, came up with a car-related name (The Stig’s American Cousin), signed up for media access on a bunch of manufacturer’s websites, and started writing. I did everything from cover new trim levels to reviewing my friends’ cars. I even wrote a really bad April Fool’s Day post about the next Subaru Impreza WRX being Toyota-Corolla-based. It was fun, and because it was fun, it never felt like work. Sometime after my blog had gotten off the ground, I noticed that Motor Trend was hiring for what’s now our Daily News Team. I sent in my résumé and a link to my blog. I got the job, and two weeks after graduation I made the move from New York to California. I’ve been happily plugging away at a keyboard—and driving some seriously awesome hardware—ever since.
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