‘Life or death;’ Concerned drivers speaking out after their car sped up without them hitting the gas
Some Subaru drivers say their cars accelerated without them ever pressing the gas pedal.
As reported at 5:30, Over a dozen people are suing Subaru after their cars suddenly sped up even when they didn’t have their foot on the gas, our news partners at WSB-TV reported.
“It was life or death for me. I mean, it happened that fast,” Karen Karna said.
Her 2016 Subaru Outback rammed a box truck when it sped up on its own. A man’s shop in Arizona was destroyed when he says his Subaru decided to accelerate on its own.
“I’m waiting for my garage door to go up and it took off,” Theresa Rawls said.
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The driver of a 2016 Forester had to be cut out of the car in Massachusetts. All of these drivers blame Subaru for the crashes.
“I know that it was an unintended acceleration. It was such force,” Cheryl Boucher, one of the people suing Subaru said.
According to the 2020 potential class action lawsuit, the automaker “... knew that the Class Vehicles contain one or more defects that cause sudden and unintended acceleration without driver input.”
Russel Paul, the attorney for the class action lawsuit said Subaru has known about the defect.
“We have alleged Subaru has known since 2011 of this issue, and they’ve known it from complaints by customers directly to Subaru and to its dealers, as well as information passed on from Subaru pre-release testing,” Paul said.
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In the case of Karna’s 2016 outback, her trip to the nursery quickly turned into a nightmare.
“I thought, what’s going on? What’s wrong with my car? I have no control,” Karna said.
She said the gas pedal “grabbed hold” and slammed to the floor.
“I could see what was coming in front of me and what decisions I had to make from killing somebody or killing myself or injuring myself or somebody,” Karna said.
Her sternum was cracked in the crash. Her husband of 58 years, Duane Karna reflected on how she could have died.
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The lawsuit states there were more than 150 complaints filed to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration about “Sudden Unintended Acceleration.”
“Subaru of America takes safety very seriously, and we are not aware of a single confirmed case of unintended acceleration in a Subaru vehicle,” A spokesperson for Subaru said in a statement. “When reviewing cases with Event Data Recorder (EDR) data, the results invariably show that the vehicle driver pressed the accelerator pedal instead of the brake pedal.”
Paul is disputing Subaru’s claim.
“We’ve spoken to many, many of the class members. You’ve heard them testify, ponder over their experiences, and we’d analyze their crash data. And we’ve also created a simulation of all of the incidents that occurred. We believe they are clear, clear expressions of unintended acceleration,” Paul said.
Paul also said these problems aren’t just happening to elderly people, the ages of the plaintiffs in the class vary. One of the people is even a current airline pilot.
