plus 3, Toyota Fires Away at Acceleration Theory - CBS News

Toyota Fires Away at Acceleration Theory - CBS News
Relatives gather for funeral of slain Darien family members - Chicago Breaking News - Tribune
Toyota aims to refute critic who blames electronics, not gas pedals ... - Minneapolis Star Tribune
Toyota aims to refute critic blaming electronics, not pedals, for ... - Brandon Sun

Toyota Fires Away at Acceleration Theory - CBS News

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 12:00 PM PST

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Relatives gather for funeral of slain Darien family members - Chicago Breaking News - Tribune

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 12:00 PM PST

On Sunday, hundred of people paid their respects at a wake for the Kramers.

Joe Jacobazzi remembered the flat tire he got about 20 years ago on a cold morning, and how he didn't hesitate to call Jeffrey Kramer at 2 a.m. and ask for help. Kramer immediately sent someone out to fix Jacobazzi's flat.

"No charge. Just a handshake," recalled Jacobazzi, a friend of Kramer's father.

Since the deaths Tuesday of the Kramers, Jacobazzi said the crime has been "eating me. There's no rhyme or reason."

"I was shocked," said 15-year-old Torrie Stoewsand, Lori Kramer's second cousin. "They seemed like one of the last types of families that this would happen to."

As mourners snaked around the Hallowell & James Funeral Home in Downers Grove, two men who allegedly conspired together to kill the Kramers remained behind bars. Earlier Sunday, Jacob Nodarse, 23, of Countryside, and Johnny Borizov, 28, of Willow Springs were denied bail as DuPage County prosecutors provided new details about the killings.

Borizov, who prosecutors say badgered Nodarse into committing the crime, is charged with first-degree murder, solicitation of murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Nodarse, the alleged gunman, is charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

Nodarse promised Borizov that he would kill Angela Kramer, with whom Borizov was locked in a heated custody battle over their 13-month-old son. After breaking into the Kramer home with a hammer, the first of his 10 shots downed Michael Kramer as Kramer was trying to get a knife. Then Nodarse shot Jeffrey and Lori Kramer.

After Nodarse couldn't find Angela Kramer, who was hiding in a closet and calling 911, he stood over each body and pumped another bullet into their heads to make sure they were dead, Assistant DuPage County State's Atty. Jeffrey Muntz said in court Sunday.

Nodarse returned to his car parked a block away and fled to Florida. He called Borizov on a prepaid cell phone, saying: "This is Jake. I am still driving and I think I am being followed."
Muntz said Nodarse and Borizov discussed the scheme on Feb. 25 -- the same day Nodarse bought a gun used in the shootings and quit his job at a Westmont auto dealer.

There is no evidence Borizov paid Nodarse to commit the killings, but Nodarse told police he would do anything for Borizov, Muntz said.

Arrested outside his parent's Florida home, Nodarse eventually led police to a Terre Haute, Ind., trash bin behind a pancake house where he had thrown a .40-caliber Glock handgun and the clothes he wore during the attack, officials said.

To give himself an alibi, prosecutors allege that Borizov was at the Empress Casino in Joliet until 3:40 the next morning after the shootings, Muntz said. Borizov made sure security cameras and credit card receipts would bolster his alibi, prosecutors said, and he brought a relative to vouch for his whereabouts.

Borizov's lawyer, Marc Wolfe, called Muntz's allegations empty. Wolfe disputed the prosecution's motive and blamed Nodarse. He said the custody issue "was not heated and was going very well. This whole case sits on this fellow Jacob. Because Jacob professes to know Johnny, therefore Johnny must be involved? Ridiculous."

Nodarse's lawyer, Randy Rueckert, said he was unfamiliar with the details of the case but said, "I just have to shake my head."

Muntz refused to say if another person police have questioned along with Borizov would face charges.

Borizov and Nodarse are due in court March 29. If convicted, they could be eligible for the death penalty, but prosecutors have not decided to seek the death penalty yet.

A Kramer's Towing truck leads a line of tow trucks outside the funeral mass for Jeffrey and Lori Kramer and their son Michael at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Darien today. (Scott Strazzante/Tribune)

-- Angie Leventis-Lougos, Art Barnum and Kristen Schorsch

Click HERE for a WGN-TV report on this story.

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Toyota aims to refute critic who blames electronics, not gas pedals ... - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 01:19 PM PST

Gilbert told a congressional hearing Feb. 23 that he recreated sudden acceleration in a Toyota Tundra by short-circuiting the electronics behind the gas pedal — without triggering any trouble codes in the truck's computer.

The trouble codes send the car's computer into a fail-safe mode that allows the brake to override the gas. Gilbert called his findings a "startling discovery."

House lawmakers seized on the testimony as evidence Toyota engineers missed a potential problem with the electronics that could have caused the unwanted acceleration.

But Monday, Chris Gerdes, director of Stanford University's Center for Automotive Research, and a consulting firm, Exponent Inc., rejected the professor's findings.

Toyota's assembled experts said the professor's experiments could not be recreated on the actual road. For example, they said, Gilbert had shaved away insulation on wiring and connected wires that would not normally touch each other.

"There is no evidence that I've seen to indicate that this situation is happening at all in the real world," Gerdes said. He added that the professor's work "could result in misguided policy and unwarranted fear."

To prove their point, Toyota officials revved the engines of cars made by competitors, including a Subaru Forester and a Ford Fusion, by connecting a circuit rigged up to the wiring of the gas pedals.

Toyota supports other research programs at Stanford's engineering school and is an affiliate of the Center for Automotive Research, but Gerdes said he came to his conclusions "with complete independence."

Gilbert did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

Exponent has conducted work for companies that are being sued and once determined that secondhand tobacco smoke was not cancerous. It was also hired by the U.S. government to investigate the Columbia space shuttle disaster.

Exponent officials said they were conducting an extensive study of Toyota electronics but they had not yet found any problems with the electronic throttle controls.

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Toyota aims to refute critic blaming electronics, not pedals, for ... - Brandon Sun

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 12:21 PM PST

WASHINGTON - Toyota gave detailed evidence Monday that it says disproves claims that electronics may cause the unwanted acceleration that led to the recall of more than eight million cars and trucks.

Toyota was attempting to counter tests by an Illinois engineering professor who said Toyota engines could rev without a driver pressing on the gas. The automaker says mechanical problems, not electronics, are to blame.

Chris Gerdes, director of Stanford University's Center for Automotive Research, and a consulting firm, Exponent Inc., said the professor had tampered with wiring to create electronic glitches that could never occur on the road.

The professor's work "could result in misguided policy and unwarranted fear," Gerdes said.

The work of David W. Gilbert, an automotive technology professor at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, has been the basis of many doubts that Toyota's mechanical fixes for unwanted acceleration will truly solve the problem.

Gilbert told a congressional hearing Feb. 23 that he recreated sudden acceleration in a Toyota Tundra by short-circuiting the electronics behind the gas pedal - without triggering any trouble codes in the truck's computer.

"We do not believe that electronics are at the root of this issue," Mike Michels, a Toyota spokesman, said during a demonstration at the automaker's North American headquarters in Torrance, Calif.

Toyota says faulty gas pedals and floor mats, not electronics, are the cause. It is fixing millions of vehicles to correct those problems. But some drivers have reported continued problems in vehicles that have already been supposedly fixed.

Federal safety regulators are investigating complaints over Toyota's repairs. Michels said the automaker is also reviewing the complaints, and that some were the result of bad repairs or other factors.

Gilbert told Congress he made a "startling discovery" that showed the electronic throttle control system could have a problem without producing a trouble code. The code sends the computer into a fail safe mode that allows the brake to override the gas.

House lawmakers seized on the testimony as evidence Toyota engineers missed a potential problem with the electronics that could have caused the unwanted acceleration.

According to Exponent, Gilbert connected sensor wires from the pedal of a 2010 Toyota Avalon to an engineered circuit, revving the engine without using the pedal. Gilbert demonstrated the method in an ABC News story last month.

Exponent said it reproduced the test on the same model year Avalon and a 2007 Camry and was able to rev the engine. But it concluded the electronic throttle system would have to be tampered with significantly to create the right conditions.

"Dr. Gilbert's scenario amounts to connecting the accelerator pedal sensors to an engineered circuit that would be highly unlikely to occur naturally, and that can only be contrived in a laboratory," an Exponent report said.

For example, Exponent said, Gilbert stripped wires in Toyota gas pedal systems of their insulation and used circuits to connect wires that were too far apart to touch each other.

Exponent said it also revved the engine of some Toyota competitors' cars using the same technique, including a Subaru Outback and a Ford Fusion. The automaker stressed its tests did not show any flaws with those models or its own cars.

Toyota's event Monday is part of a broad campaign by the world's biggest automaker to discredit critics, repair its damaged reputation and begin restoring trust in its vehicles.

In Canada, 270,000 vehicles were recalled. The company has two assembly plants in southern Ontario that employ a total of around 6,500 people. Toyota Canada builds the Corolla, the Matrix and the Lexus RX350 in Cambridge and the RAV4 sport utility vehicle in Woodstock, all for domestic consumption and export to the U.S. market.

On Friday, a congressional committee questioned Toyota's efforts to find the causes of the problems. It also questioned whether the company had sufficiently investigated the issue of electronic defects.

Toyota executives also will address recall issues at its annual suppliers meeting in Kentucky on Tuesday.

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