DURHAM — A preliminary investigation into a one-vehicle crash on Pinkham Brook Road on Saturday in which four people were trapped inside their vehicle indicated a mechanical defect, police said.
Arthur Lane, 81, of Brunswick was driving a 2010 Toyota Prius north on Route 125 (Pinkham Brook Road) and was suddenly unable to control the steering, Androscoggin County Deputy Sheriff Jon Guay said.
Lane's vehicle careened off the right shoulder into a deep culvert, across a driveway and into another culvert, landing on the passenger side, Guay said. Fire and rescue personnel from Durham, assisted by Lisbon Emergency and Freeport Rescue, had to extricate the four victims from the vehicle, he said.
He said Lane, his wife Merilda, 80, and passengers Ronald Wood, 68, and his wife, Constance, 59, of Vassalboro all complained of pain in the chest and rib area and were taken to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.
Lane's Toyota sustained $20,000 in damages and was demolished in the 3:33 p.m. crash, Guay said.
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Over the years I have owned
Over the years I have owned many Toyota's, mostly Camry's. I think the problem over the last few years is simply after rising to to the top in the industry, Toyota stopped looking at Quality and concentrated more on the bottom line. In that end they fell into the past practices of the big three (Ford, General Motors & Chrysler) Money overrules quality. Which started their downward spiral.
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I have only drive Toyotas. I have an older Camry and hoping to get it too 330K miles. After that, I hope the problems are resolved so I can feel confident in getting another Toyota.
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can't fix typos.
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Must have taken a while to get them out of that car especially if it was a "hybrid". If they were trapped and had to use the jaws of life machine the rescue team has to be extremely carefull not to cut through any of the wires for the batteries that run the car.....they could endanger themselves trying to get the occupants out. It also prolongs the precious seconds you need to survive when you involved in a serious accident.
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They'd have to use the jaws of life to get me INTO one of those suckers.
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Toyota owners are brainwashed and out of touch with reality. Those cars are NO better than any other brand out there. The warranty sucks, the dealers are "POMPUS ASSES" and quality is terrible. The safety recalls in the past 18 months alone are scary. And Toyota trucks are so bad that they have to put new frames on that JUNK!! Would anyone still consider buying a GM vehicle if they recalled 10 million vehicles for safety issue after safety issue....or if you needed a new frame put under your 5 year old truck because it rusted out. Go ahead and press your luck driving that junk.....just don't run into me with that piece of crap cause I will beat you to a bloody stump if the accident doesn't kill me first. YOU ARE ENDANGERING YOURSELF...YOUR FAMILY...AND EVERYONE ELSE ON THE ROAD!! Including me!
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Driving a Toyota is like being told you have to eat vanilla ice cream for the rest of your life.
Chevrolet Corvette
Ford Mustang
Chrysler Challenger
Nissan Z370
Mazda RX8
Honda S2000
Audi R8
Toyota Sound of crickets off in the distance.
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Another example of Toyota quality.
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It seems to me that in a lot of the incidents involving the “stuck gas pedal” the drivers are in their 70’0s or older… I’m curious to see if that is what they blame this one on. I mean “mechanical defects” in a brand new car?
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I'd rather have a 75 year old ahead of me than an 18 year old tailgating me.
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A quick google shows that complaints are coming from all age groups
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that claims that most of the accidents involve seniors, but the author fails to note that most of the cars are owned by older people, and that the actual stats show the problems occurring with drivers of all ages.
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I'd be curious to know if indeed was something wrong with the car, or if the age of the driver had something to do with it. (preliminary could be as simple as asking the driver what happened)
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The article does tell what happened......The driver was unable to steer the car. That is one of the safety recalls out there on Toyotas. Go to www.recalls.gov and you can get not only the safety recalls on Toyotas but also the big list of TSB's on the brand. TSB's are " technical service bulletins" are the mechanical issues that people complain to NHTSA about( and your dealer tries to repair before you take it off the lot) that have not been escalated to a recall ...YET!
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