Volkswagen Cleared by Coroner in Melissa Ryan "Unintended Deceleration" Case

[AdamD]

Coroner rules out systemic safety issues with the Volkswagen Golf in freeway crash death inquest - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Well, it's about time common-sense prevailed in this matter. And it turns out she was making a mobile phone call at the time as well.

Hopefully this outcome will go some way toward improving VW's image in the marketplace.

[GTI4ME]

Yeah, I wonder if Fairfax media will retract some of their "journalism" now, or at least offer something in the way of an apology, or clarification of facts?

[Transporter]

So, Melisa had a phone call conversation, the coroner recommended banning hands free from the cars. Do I miss something here? How about the truck driver driving too close and not being able to stop in time?

I also don't buy that it's impossible to stop the truck fast enough because of the truck's weight. If you travel 100km/h and keep the distance 200 meters or more you will still arrive at your destination in 1 hour regardless of the gap you keep in front of your vehicle. Simple like that.

I didn't read all article from that coroner, but he probably blames everything on Melissa Ryan, because she had a phone call conversation.

[ziggyboy]

Yeah, I wonder if Fairfax media will retract some of their "journalism" now, or at least offer something in the way of an apology, or clarification of facts?

Fairfax has always clarified this issue and they have repeatedly said that the vehicle involved in the accident was not the same type as the recalls.

It just feels like they said it was because the two would appear on the same article. It was like "An accident possibly caused by VW. On related matters, VW is recalling vehicles..." on the same article.

[ziggyboy]

In support of my argument.

Here is the original article that came out in May: Death prompts VW owners to speak out

The coroner, whose decision is due in late July, will assess whether Ms Ryan's death was due to fault on the part of the truck driver, her own fault, vehicle malfunction or a combination of factors. Her car was a manual; most problems overseas with sudden deceleration in Volkswagens are found in automatics.

It CLEARLY says that the cars are of different transmission. So I don't know what you're on about.

[PassatB6]

Fairfax has always clarified this issue and they have repeatedly said that the vehicle involved in the accident was not the same type as the recalls.

It just feels like they said it was because the two would appear on the same article. It was like "An accident possibly caused by VW. On related matters, VW is recalling vehicles..." on the same article.

They IMPLIED a link without leaving themselves open for litigation. Slimy journos at a slimy paper. I've had people ask me about the link between the Golf and safety issues based purely on the SMH articles knowing I had owned a number of them. So why would they put the two together if the link hadn't been suggested by the SMH?

[The_Hawk]

I just saw and read this article, looks like we will be in for another wave of new articles over the coming weeks regardless of what the coroner said.

I'm guessing there will be an articles:

An expanded article on the Backlash from the family over the decision.
Another article or two with some "expert" vaguely intimating the findings were wrong for some reason
An article on the recall itself
A separate article on feedback from VW owners who haven't been processed yet
A separate article on feedback from VW owners who have been processed and still feel they have issues
A separate article on feedback from VW owners who were completely unaware of the recall
A separate article on feedback from VW owners who are upset their resale value has dropped
Then 6 more articles about using mobiles phones in cars...

Each of these new articles will link back to the earlier story and somehow work the words VW, Failure, Recall and Death into the story.

As Ziggy said, it *appears* they are linking all these things together where there have been a few clarifications that sort of glaze over the facts to keep them on the right edge of that grey line. Implied, insinuated... all but outright said there is a link while quietly slipping in there isn't.

edit: I misread Ziggys original post and had to rephrase some of that last paragraph.

[ziggyboy]

They IMPLIED a link without leaving themselves open for litigation. Slimy journos at a slimy paper. I've had people ask me about the link between the Golf and safety issues based purely on the SMH articles knowing I had owned a number of them. So why would they put the two together if the link hadn't been suggested by the SMH?

See my other post. How is that implied? The explicitly said there was no link.

The coroner, whose decision is due in late July, will assess whether Ms Ryan's death was due to fault on the part of the truck driver, her own fault, vehicle malfunction or a combination of factors. Her car was a manual; most problems overseas with sudden deceleration in Volkswagens are found in automatics.

[The_Hawk]

Let me also remind people of [one of] the original original article from 2011:

No Cookies | Herald Sun

No talk of VW, no talk of deceleration. All the [families] blame pointing at the truck driver and that article was months after the incident happened... why did the blame and focus change so dramatically in that time?

[ziggyboy]

Let me also remind people of [one of] the original original article from 2011:

No Cookies | Herald Sun

No talk of VW, no talk of deceleration. All the [families] blame pointing at the truck driver and that article was months after the incident happened... why did the blame and focus change so dramatically in that time?

I would think that this was not Fairfax's doing, but rather surfaced from within the case. Fairfax merely picked up on it and pieced it together with the many complaints.

I'm a little shocked that even after all this people believe Volkswagen is absolutely innocent of everything.

I have nothing but praise for Fairfax for pushing Volkswagen to act on their issues. I for one have had many problem with my car and yes, I have experienced the "false neutral" problem and my car is getting the recall fix. I don't think VW would have done anything without Fairfax exposing them for what they are.

[gldgti]

I dont see how you can support the newspaper exploiting the death of a car accident victim and their families search for someone or something to blame, in trying to get VW to provide better customer care for a technically completely unrelated issue (which in fact is just a way to roll several smaller stories into a long saga that helps sell their papers).

The ends justify the means? Really?

I can certainly appreciate a good bit of investigative journalism and pushing corporations to do the right thing, but its pretty easy to recognise that that is not what fairfax have done here.

[stickshift3000]

I have nothing but praise for Fairfax for pushing Volkswagen to act on their issues.

Yup. +1

[The_Hawk]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they are perfect and that there are no issues, I said as much in one of the early threads on this topic. The fact that this forced VW to take action isn't a bad thing, I just feel like there is something below the surface focussing on VW for some reason.

So it seems the Coroner was handed the case in April-ish (maybe, there isn't any detail) with no results due out until July, yet for no apparent reason the article brings up a range of VW issues in some vague way linking them back to a 2 year old case that has no findings and was a completely different car which doesn't have any of the issues they are talking about (other than being a VW).

Then every subsequent article talking about people with DSG problems manages to link back to the original article and use talk about the death and all but implies it's a common & widespread issue causing every VW to be a death trap.

She was driving a Petrol GTI, Manual. Not a DSG and not a diesel which are the things they are banging on about having issues and what seems to be the focus of that and later articles.

[PassatB6]

I would think that this was not Fairfax's doing, but rather surfaced from within the case. Fairfax merely picked up on it and pieced it together with the many complaints.

I'm a little shocked that even after all this people believe Volkswagen is absolutely innocent of everything.

I have nothing but praise for Fairfax for pushing Volkswagen to act on their issues. I for one have had many problem with my car and yes, I have experienced the "false neutral" problem and my car is getting the recall fix. I don't think VW would have done anything without Fairfax exposing them for what they are.

The problem is that despite the fact that the judge exonerated VW, you continue to suggest that they are guilty of something primarily because you had an unrelated problem with your own vehicle. You're deluding yourself if you can't admit Fairfax implied a link between the death and VW. The fact is that the driver was on the phone, the car make was irrelevant. Why didn't Fairfax run a story on mobile phone use in cars??

This event had NOTHING to do with VW but Fairfax continued to mount a campaign against the company even going to the extent of documenting how many complaints there had been from VW drivers about their "issues". They even said the company would not respond to their requests for information. Absolute trashy journalism.

[ziggyboy]

I dont see how you can support the newspaper exploiting the death of a car accident victim and their families search for someone or something to blame, in trying to get VW to provide better customer care for a technically completely unrelated issue (which in fact is just a way to roll several smaller stories into a long saga that helps sell their papers).

The ends justify the means? Really?

I can certainly appreciate a good bit of investigative journalism and pushing corporations to do the right thing, but its pretty easy to recognise that that is not what fairfax have done here.

I don't see it this way. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the fatal victim's family encouraged Fairfax to do just this. They have been very vocal about Volkswagen from the start and the type of support they got.

So a big NO. They were not exploited. In fact, I think they wanted Fairfax to take their story and all other VW issues to the public.