Mitsubishi Montero Sudden Acceleration Accidents [MERGED]

[tidus1203]

Last December 16, 2010 I arrived with my wife and daughter from London for our Christmas vacation and we were picked up from the Manila International Airport by my parents and sister. My sister drove our November 2009 Mitsubishi Montero (4x2 automatic which just had its 5000 km service from Mitsubishi Balintawak a week before) to the airport while my dad drove the Montero from the airport to our house in Quezon City. After lunch, I drove the Montero with my wife to the National Kidney Institute to visit my wife’s mother. After visiting my mother-in-law in the hospital, I then drove the Montero back to our house. My sister, father, and I did not find anything unusual with the Montero. In fact, we love our Montero. I even recommended the Montero to my dad when he was deciding on what SUV to buy a year ago.

Then at about 6pm that same day my mother asked my dad to remove the Montero from our driveway and park it outside our house because orphans will be visiting our house to sing Christmas carols. As my dad was parallel parking along the side of the road outside our gate, the Montero suddenly accelerated forward with very high engine revolution and collided with a Mercedes Benz E230 parked just 6 meters away on the side of the road (The impact was so strong that the E230 moved about 3 meters as evidenced by the tire skid marks)! The engine revolution was so loud that I, my family, and our neighbors went outside to see what happened! This happened even when my dad was stepping hard on the brakes! My dad is a very safe driver with over 50 years of driving experience and mostly with cars with automatic transmission. After colliding with the Mercedes, the Montero did not stop but continued forward at high speed (still my father was stepping hard on the brakes! He said the brakes worked but it was overwhelmed by the power and forward motion of our Montero!). My father saw a passing Toyota Revo infront of him and a tricycle infront of the Revo. So he decided to hit a Meralco electric post (68 meters away from our house) to stop the Montero! Fortunately, he missed the electric post by half a meter and instead side swiped our neighbor's wall and then collided with a palm tree. After hitting the tree, my father said that the Montero still jerked forward a couple of times before stopping.

After colliding with the Mercedes Benz, side swiping a wall, and hitting a tree, the airbags did not deploy! It was only very fortunate that my father shifted his body to the front passenger side so his head did not hit the windshield. My sister and I with a lot of our neighbors rushed to the rescue of my father. And fortunately one of our neighbors that rushed to the aid of my father was a trauma nurse from Stanford, California. He checked the condition of my dad while I quickly went home to get our Ford Everest to drive my dad to the hospital. In the hospital, my dad was examined by the emergency room doctor and had a full body x-ray. Very fortunately, no fractures were found. We then went to the police station to get a police report.

The next day we went to the office of our insurance company and Mitsubishi Balintawak. As usual they told us that they will conduct an investigation.

Has anyone of you heard or experienced sudden acceleration (you can read about it at Sudden Acceleration Information Group) with a Mitsubishi Montero similar to the incidents that Toyota vehicles suffered? Please email me at julius.victa@gmail.com

We are very thankful that no one was seriously hurt in this accident but imagine if this happened on EDSA during our trip from the airport with my whole family on board our Montero.

Thank you very much and please drive safely.

Mitsubishi Montero Sudden Acceleration Accident

And if you read the comments below the blog, may iba pa palang incidents of SUDDEN ACCELRATION ala Toyota in the US!

[turboride]

parang impossible naman for the mat to depress the gas pedal by that much-- unless pag apak sa brake,nakapatong ang mat sa gas and brake at the same time.

[tidus1203]

Well that is what the investigation of Mitsubishi says, the victim of course denies the findings but accepted the offer of Mitsubishi to avoid legal problems.

[turboride]

actually, i have friends who drive automatics with 1 foot on the brake, 1 foot on the gas. mga hindi dumaan sa manual. sana walang gumagawa niyan dito.

[Ry_Tower]

Mitsubishi Montero Sudden Acceleration Accident

And if you read the comments below the blog, may iba pa palang incidents of SUDDEN ACCELRATION ala Toyota in the US!

Nabasa ko na yan. Based sa investigation, mukhang drivers fault. Naapakan sabay gas at brake, eh crdi, talo brakes!

It was in a forum before. I forgot it na.

[Starex_Gold]

Nabasa ko na yan. Based sa investigation, mukhang drivers fault. Naapakan sabay gas at brake, eh crdi, talo brakes!

It was in a forum before. I forgot it na.

Ano pa kaya kung sa Santa Fe nangyari yan.

Ehe-he-he!

[renzo_d10]

Ehhhhhhhhh. No comment.

Just hoping everyone's safe though.

Sayang yung benz.

[mda]

Driver error or bad floor carpets.

Even the Toyota sudden acceleration issues in the US have been proven to caused by the same.

[renzo_d10]

Driver error? I highly doubt it.

MMC = Fail

At yung sinabi niya na " galit ang makina " ? Pano naman mabigyan ng ganun pressure ng floor mats ang pedal?

Fail. Fail. Fail.

[katana]

if 1st time niya mag maneho ng montero sports, sa tingin ko driver's fault. unless he drives it several times tapos nangyari yon, pwede ang sasakyan may problema. yong deployment ng airbag, sa tingin ko, tama lang hindi nag deploy ang airbag sa konting damage ng montero. ano kaya nangyari kung premature nag deploy ang airbag, di na ma control ng driver ang sasakyan at baka ma ospital pa siya sa pag deploy ng airbag. ang di ko maintindihan, kung start niya ang engine at nag high rpm, paano at bakit niya na engage sa drive ang transmission? baka nasa drive position ang transmission at naapakan niya ang accelerator instead brake bago niya start ang engine, kaya napatakbo agad ang montero at engine high rpm???????? sa tingin ko la rin kinalaman yong floor carpet sa acceleration na sasakyan.