Stopping in an Emergency

[PaulaT]

My sister asked me how to stop my Prius if I became unconscious at the wheel. In other cars we have owned a passenger could pull the handbrake on/push the brake switch & knock the car into neutral. I have no idea, help please!

[Anthony Poli]

My sister asked me how to stop my Prius if I became unconscious at the wheel. In other cars we have owned a passenger could pull the handbrake on/push the brake switch & knock the car into neutral. I have no idea, help please!

 

Others have said P was an option, while traveling at anything over the creep speed it would put the car into neutral. Pressing P once the speed was slow enough would then engage the transmission lock.

 

 

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[birdseye]

Putting the vehicle into P apparently locks the transmission by inserting a lug into a hole so I doubt you could do it whilst moving even 1 mph,  just be glad that your car has automatic braking if your about to hit something

[kithmo]

 There's no way anyone but the driver could stop the car, if it's moving at anything but a crawl, without climbing over into the driver's seat. As Anthony said you can put the car in neutral but you can't slow it down. I would suggest that if there's any possibility that you may become unconscious at the wheel, then it's time to stop driving and hand in your licence.

[kithmo]

7 minutes ago, birdseye said:

Putting the vehicle into P apparently locks the transmission by inserting a lug into a hole so I doubt you could do it whilst moving even 1 mph,  just be glad that your car has automatic braking if your about to hit something

2008 Prius doesn't have auto braking.

[QuantumFireball]

Putting into B would at least help it slow down, but not dramatically - assuming your foot is off the accelerator. N would be worse than D as it disables regenerative braking. You'd need to get to the brake pedal really - at least it's bigger than in a manual car.

[Heidfirst]

Can't you switch it off by holding down  the Start/Stop (Power in a Prius?) button for 5 seconds? (this will of course also mean that power steering etc. will go too)

[PeteB]

Any Prius (and Hybrid with a Start/Stop button), can be made to do an emergency shutdown by either pressing it 4 times rapidly or holding it for several seconds.  I believe this selects N - (keeping the system on and selecting B might be slightly better, but that assumes a passenger knows about such things).

As least on a Gen 1 or Gen 2 Prius it's possible for a front passenger with reasonably long legs to reach the parking brake pedal, which could be used like a handbrake, better still if they could reach the service brake pedal.  There was just such an occurrence quoted in the old Toyota (paper) magazine just before the Gen 3 was announced, they printed a letter from a Gen 2 owner where the driver had a heart attack and the passenger reached the service brake pedal.  They praised to open plan design and said they would only buy cars like that in the future.

So enter the Gen 3 with it's 'flying bridge' centre console that made not just reaching any pedals from the passenger side impossible, but also no chance for most people of climbing across if someone parked tight against the driver's door - happened to me on my Gen 3 and I had to wait 2 hours for the inconsiderate s*d to return!  The Gen 4 is no better in that respect.  At least on the other Hybrids there's a conventional handbrake lever.

Re Kitmo's comment, there are many cases of drivers collapsing at the wheel every year and many (if not most) had no warning.  My own late sister died suddenly of a brain aneurysm at 65 and her late husband of a massive heart attack at 48.  Neither had any history that suggested this might happen, and both were perfectly fit up to the moment of death (my bother-in-law had just finished a county level badminton match).  It's mighty lucky they weren't driving at the time they died!

[kithmo]

Sorry to hear about that Pete and I understand it happens, but I made the comment as the OP sounded like she (or her sister) were expecting it to happen, suggesting prior knowledge of some medical condition that might bring on a collapse at the wheel.

[PeteB]

15 hours ago, PeteB said:

... the Gen 3 with it's 'flying bridge' centre console that made not just reaching any pedals from the passenger side impossible... The Gen 4 is no better in that respect...

I meant to say "no better" re reaching pedals.  On the Gen 4 Prius, there is, at least, some possibility of climbing across if it's necessary to enter via the passenger side if one is reasonably fit, agile and not too fat (I fail on all three!).

[PaulaT]

Thank you all for your valued comments. As far as I am aware there is absolutely nothing to suspect that I may become unconscious whilst driving but there are no guarantees in life. My Sister just commented that in all the other cars we have had there was an easily accessible means of at least attempting to slow or stop the vehicle in an emergency but how was this accomplished in the Prius. We are now looking to investigate the possibility of fitting ejector seats;))

Thanks again!

[kithmo]

Glad to hear you're fit and well Paula, your sister sounds like a real bundle of fun, I would definitely fit an ejector seat for her, to use the next time she makes one of her pessimistic comments. 

[PeteB]

I must admin I thought the same thing when I saw the Gen 3 Prius had that dreadful flying centre console that completely isolated the driver area from the passenger side.

[MEP's Yaris GS]

In the Gen 3 hitting P/Park will put the car into neutral if above crawling speed, at least then you can loose a bit of speed and just steer if required.

Then again how often do you hear of someone being taken ill on the road and a passenger taking over. Not very often luckily.

[PeteB]

Well, I've seen the aftermath of two. Also, a couple of years ago it made national news when a 14 year old boy took hold of the wheel of a school bus and put his foot on the brake when the driver had a heart attack.

That's in addition to the one in the Toyota magazine. 

I also know of two occasions when a pilot of a light aircraft died in the air and the unskilled passenger safely landed the plane having been talked down on the radio.  One of those was a teenage schoolgirl on her first ever flight!  Again, both made national news and one was the subject of a TV documentary. 

[PaulaT]

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Glad to hear you're fit and well Paula, your sister sounds like a real bundle of fun, I would definitely fit an ejector seat for her, to use the next time she makes one of her pessimistic comments. 

Ha Ha! People often mistake us for twins, although she is a year older than me. Hmm!  But your right about one thing she is definitely a pessimist and I'm an optimist. At least I think I am.

 

[YarisHybrid2016]

Earlier this week I saw a car had crashed on a dual-carriage way and the driver was slumped over. It looked like they mostly managed to slow down before losing control. :(

[MEP's Yaris GS]

1 hour ago, YarisHybrid2016 said:

Earlier this week I saw a car had crashed on a dual-carriage way and the driver was slumped over. It looked like they mostly managed to slow down before losing control. :(

Bit of an assumption that they'd slumped before the crash surely....

[Mike169]

This is an interesting read and applicable to this thread.

https://mechanics.stackexchange.com/questions/7281/what-happens-when-you-hit-engine-button-on-a-keyless-ignition

Mike.

 

[QuantumFireball]

From the manual of my Prius:

Quote

 

Stopping the hybrid system in an emergency:

If you want to stop the hybrid system in an emergency while driving the vehicle, press and hold the “POWER” switch for more than 3 seconds, or press it briefly 3 times or more in succession.

However, do not touch the “POWER” switch while driving except in an emergency. Turning the hybrid system off while driving will not cause loss of steering or braking control, but the power assist to these systems will be lost. This will make it more difficult to steer and brake, so you should pull over and stop the vehicle as soon as it is safe to do so.

 

I believe the repeated pressing of the button to stop it was only introduced after the "unintended acceleration" incidents - only the 3-second press and hold was present on older models. Not sure if any of the recalls made changes to how the Power button operates.

I assume doing this will shut down the car and put it in neutral, but as in the quote above you'll lose power steering and brake servo assistance - so it's probably a bad idea unless the throttle is stuck. Even if you have trouble reaching the brake pedal, keeping in D or preferably B will at least help slow the car down.

[barrycoll]

Radar cruise control+Lane Assist , and autonomous braking

You can now have your heart attack with complete confidence

[PeteB]

3 hours ago, barrycoll said:

Radar cruise control+Lane Assist , and autonomous braking

You can now have your heart attack with complete confidence

I feel soooo much better now!  :}

[Anthony Poli]

Radar cruise control+Lane Assist , and autonomous braking

You can now have your heart attack with complete confidence

I feel soooo much better now!  :}

 

Even more once the paramedics turn up ;-)

 

 

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[PeteB]

Shame it doesn't have the device that phones the emergency services automatically after a crash, giving deceleration force details and location, etc.!

Mind you, can be a two-edged sword I suppose - there was recently a story in the (UK) press about someone with a Ford that had the system - he crashed into a roundabout on the way home from the pub.  Apparently, the driver didn't know he had the system, but the Police turned up, breathalysed him, and as a result he got banned and fined.

[Anthony Poli]

Wouldn’t be surprised to find out, that your mobile could do it already. The new iPhone iOS will have the do not disturb when your moving over a certain speed, which you can tell it your not driving.

 

 

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