Quality

Bumpyroad wrote:


I skimmed thru the article and didn't notice if they said how many pounds of trinkets were on her key chain.

don't really see how hydroplaning was caused by the keys? She was speeding, was unlucky.


bumpy

It's in the article.

The reading showed that between three and four seconds before the crash, the speed of Brooke’s Cobalt had dropped from 58 miles per hour to a standstill

...

The position of Brooke’s key proved equally perplexing. At impact, the key was not in the on position but the accessory position—where you can turn on your lights or radio, but the engine itself isn’t running.

...

When a key slipped from the on position while a car was in motion, it meant the loss of power steering and power brakes, increasing the likelihood of drivers losing control of their vehicles. It also meant a loss of power to the sensors that deploy the front airbags. Even more surprising, Cooper discovered, was that GM knew about the airbag problem and kept tabs on the potential link to a rising death toll that began at least five years before Brooke’s crash.

And then the Ford Focus hit her.

So what happened? Was she speeding and hydroplaning? Or did she lose control of steering and brakes as her speed dropped from the stopped engie, and then was hit? The article never really makes it clear. In either case, the airbags did not work as they should have.

Other articles make it clearer that the accident was cause by her car stalling, not hydroplaning. But this article doesn't do a good job of that. Here's a better description of the accident:

Brooke Melton accident

But the article uses Brooke Melton to personalize the issue. They could have chosen any of the 123 other fatalities.

The real story there is the legal battle, and the discovery of the ignition problems, and delayed fix.

GM's lawyers surely would have tried the "heavy keychain defense" if it would have been a valid argument.

But then, we'd likely have ended up with yellow payload stickers on our ignitions on all three brands.