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

[wai]

It's a no win situation. If the coroner came down with the same decision too quickly, then there would have been cries of not a thorough enough inquest. It was lengthened to take more evidence, and that is seen as taking too long.

This is why it is important to get the full transcript of the inquest (if it is available to the public).

[PassatB6]

It's a no win situation. If the coroner came down with the same decision too quickly, then there would have been cries of not a thorough enough inquest. It was lengthened to take more evidence, and that is seen as taking too long.

This is why it is important to get the full transcript of the inquest (if it is available to the public).

The complete coroner's ruling including all the evidence can be found here.Coroner rules out systemic safety issues with the Volkswagen Golf in freeway crash death inquest - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Its at the bottom of the page. If you get a 404 message just refresh and it comes up. The evidence is clear and unequivocal. The deceased persons car was not faulty. The car slowed to 40 k in 100 k zone, the driver was on a mobile phone call and the truck driver didn't see her slow down because he was looking in his rear vision mirrors. Her brake light were on according to expert evidence suggesting she braked.

[wai]

The complete coroner's ruling including all the evidence can be found here.Coroner rules out systemic safety issues with the Volkswagen Golf in freeway crash death inquest - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Thanks. Just spent around an hour reading through it.

[Ideo]

I do not see how anyone can not see the way in which Fairfax has manipulated the reporting of this case in order to be seen as "crusading journalists protecting the consumer".

They have used a death of a citizen to push their own tangentially related campaign.

Did the DSG issue deserve to be pursued? Yes. Of course. VW has reacted shoddily to this matter in Australia. However, to try and link a coroners inquest on an accident involving a completely different model and transmission is cynical and manipulative in the extreme.

[ziggyboy]

I disagree that SMH took advantage of Ms. Ryan's death to pursue Volkswagen.

I believe that it was the other way around. Melissa Ryan's camp was probably using Volkswagen's poor reputation to keep her free from blame. Read this article: Fiance disappointed with VW crash finding

I wouldn't be surprised if it was the Ryan's camp that "pushed" or "drove" SMH to make those links, not the other way around. So no, her death was not exploited. It was VW's issues that were.

[Ideo]

You honestly think one family has sway over a major media corporation?

They may have approached them. They did not force Fairfax to pursue the matter in which they did. They made that decision, and it was highly cynical end exploitative. But, it created a lot of interest, and a lot of links. And although they lost VW as an advertiser, I'm sure the other paid advertisers on their website loved the increase in hits an otherwise boring story about a coroners inquest provided.

[ziggyboy]

I think there is more to this than meets the eye.

I don't think one family is the sole cause of all this and don't believe Fairfax exploited Melissa's death. Why does it have to be completely one side's fault? So all this was solely Fairfax's? I believe the situation was mutually beneficial for both the family and troubled VW owners, and Fairfax capitalised on both (with the family's blessing--read the link I posted--it suggests they were in it hand in hand with Fairfax).

What's also to say VW wasn't in some way controlling the way VW is portrayed in Fairfax? Always great reviews with no mention of anything with the DSG (it's only recently that Drive started to mention some DSG concerns). Previously they have always said shifting was perfect at low and high speeds. Now they say the gearbox is "unsure" or something like that. Huh? We're talking about the same gearbox from 5 years ago. What has changed?

What would you say if VW prevented them from posting anything negative about VW however minor? Maybe Fairfax wanted to publish relatively minor news articles about some VW issues and problems, but VW prevented them from publishing any of it completely... who knows? It is totally possible that Fairfax got annoyed. Again, we won't know but there's more to this than meets the eye.

[Ideo]

Fairfax should have done what other media organisations did and not invent a link where no link existed to sell newspapers and creating click baiting stories.

The DSG issues and the 118 generral crapness needs to be told. But inventing a link to a RTA to sensationalise a story is gutter level tabloid journalism.

[nigel]

One point where I disagree with the coroners report is the finding that there is no evidence of a manual golf rapidly decelerating. I experienced this problem with my own mkv gti. Complete power loss at freeway speeds forced me to pull over. The service centre could find nothing in the fault codes so I worked out how to recreate the problem (fuel just below 1/4 tank and cruising at over 70 km/h). I was then able to take a VW tech out with me and recreate the issue . A faulty fuel pump was diagnosed and the car fixed. I am not implying that this happened in this case. Only that the report ruled out the possibility of mechanical failure as there were no specific error codes.

[Candyman]

There were fault codes logged, however they were logged due to the actual impact

Brake lights were active and brakes used (evidence provided)

A faulty fuel pump does not cause rapid deceleration (personal experience with my black GTI)

[nigel]

Turn your engine off going uphill on a busy dual carriageway. The deceleration feels fast enough.

[Candyman]

Deceleration is quicker when you get hit by a truck ....

[nat225]

I would have thought anyone who can drive a Manual Transmission car would depress the 'clutch' aka 3rd pedal to avoid the car from decelerating rapidly like from 100-40 in under 5 seconds should anything happened to the engine

I do not want to be rude or anything against the deceased, but my wife also had an accident when she got distracted by her mobile phone falling off the passenger chair from her bag. She was not even using the phone. Her eyes must have looked at the phone and hence lost control of the steering for a few seconds and hit a neighbour's parked car on the left at 40km/h zone about 15 metres from our house!!

[wai]

Turn your engine off going uphill on a busy dual carriageway. The deceleration feels fast enough.

But the engine was running at a speed of over 3,000 rpm according to the data extracted from the ECU, and I don't recall reading that the road was going uphill.

Also, out of the 79 (I think that was the number) vehicles that then registered with the DIT, not one matched the vehicle in question with regards to engine and transmission.

Yes, power was cut to the fuel pump, but this was the standard shut down procedure when high G loads are detected to prevent fuel being pumped out.

We all like to find a cause that makes us feel better, however sometimes what we find may not make us feel that good. We have to accept that it is people who drive and do do occasionally make errors. Yes, if you run up the back of someone, you have failed to maintain an adequate stopping distance, however in this case, the truck was not tailgating the vehicle, the evidence showed that the vehicle that was hit was not travelling at freeway speeds as everyone else was, and that prior to the accident, the truck was maintaining an adequate (minimum) gap to the vehicle in front.

[Transporter]

But the engine was running at a speed of over 3,000 rpm according to the data extracted from the ECU, and I don't recall reading that the road was going uphill.

Also, out of the 79 (I think that was the number) vehicles that then registered with the DIT, not one matched the vehicle in question with regards to engine and transmission.

Yes, power was cut to the fuel pump, but this was the standard shut down procedure when high G loads are detected to prevent fuel being pumped out.

We all like to find a cause that makes us feel better, however sometimes what we find may not make us feel that good. We have to accept that it is people who drive and do do occasionally make errors. Yes, if you run up the back of someone, you have failed to maintain an adequate stopping distance, however in this case, the truck was not tailgating the vehicle, the evidence showed that the vehicle that was hit was not travelling at freeway speeds as everyone else was, and that prior to the accident, the truck was maintaining an adequate (minimum) gap to the vehicle in front.

Isn't the meaning of maintaining the adequate distance that "you should always keep the adequate gap between your vehicle and the vehicle in front of you that you can safely stop when the vehicle in front of you slows down or stops" ? ...and if you need to look in the rear view mirror you have to adjust the gap to allow for that.

If the truck would've maintain the adequate distance prior to accident, the accident wouldn't happened.