Fishy Story

The story of a man who called police on his cell to report that his Toyota was experiencing uncontrolled acceleration is getting a lot of play. Has anyone considered that this might be a hoax? I'm not saying that it is, but really, if your accelerator were stuck and your car was just going faster and faster and you couldn't stop it, would you reach for your cell phone? Of the possible responses, that seems like one of the dumber ones. How about shifting into neutral? That's what all the driver's ed books recommend. Sure, it's a little tough to find neutral, under pressure, while keeping your eyes on the road, but it's got to be even tougher to grab your cell phone and dial 911. And if shifting into neutral doesn't work, I think I'd try turning off the engine before I'd haul out my cell. Making phone calls while driving is dangerous enough if you can control your car -- it's got to be pretty damn dangerous if you can't.

So while I'm not accusing anyone of anything, I'm just saying that I won't be surprised if this whole story turns out to be made up. Kind of like calling the police to report that your son was carried off in a balloon. Has anyone checked to see whether the guy in this story is a reality TV personality?