An elderly man says that his Toyota car’s accelerator stuck, causing him to crash into the steps of a New York shul. Gerald Silver, 86, a D-Day veteran and Purple Heart recipient, was driving home with his wife, Rosalyn, when his 2009 Camry’s gas pedal jammed, causing him to lose control of the car.
Silver said the gas pedal got stuck on Monday afternoon as he was turning onto Yellowstone Blvd. from Queens Blvd. in Forest Hills, a few blocks from his apartment.
Silver hit two parked cars and flew over some bushes before slamming into the steps of the Forest Hills Jewish Center in Queens. He nearly missed hitting a group of people.
“The car just speeded up unbelievably,” said Silver, who was returning home with his wife, Roslyn.
“I attempted to brake it and it just kept getting faster and faster. I was practically right on top of two cars. I hit both of them and then ended up on the steps of the synagogue.”
Silver said the crash could have been much worse. “Thank God that we had our shoulder straps on,” he said.
Silver said the crash left him “shook up with the nerves,” but his wife suffered a bruise on her forehead and had to be treated at a local hospital.
Police confirmed the crash but would not comment on what may have prompted it.
But Silver had no doubt what caused the accident. “It’s quite obvious – I blame Toyota,” he said.
The incident came as Toyota announced Monday night that it is recalling about 170,000 Prius hybrid cars in Japan for braking problems and will soon disclose its global plans for a fix.
Toyota’s president, Akio Toyoda, may outline plans for a possible recall in the U.S. – which would lift the total recall number to 300,000, a company official told The Associated Press.
{NY Daily News/Noam Amdurski-Matzav.com Newscenter}
sounds like he was in a rush to make Borchu
“He nearly missed hitting a group of people.”
Does that mean he did hit them?
THIS MAN SHOULD NOT BE ON THE ROAD! He is a danger to the public. It had nothing to do with Toyota.
Oh really, Old Bag, this had nothing to do with Toyota??? Well you better read up on the news about runaway Toyota cars, befroe making sick comments. By the way, old bay, when you are 75 years old, hand the keys over to your kids. Let me see you do it, mister bigshot!
#3 you know that it was his fault?
That kind of goes against the idea of judging everyone favorably.
“Old bag” why exactly is he a danger to the public? All he was doing was driving home. The fault was on the car and thats why the company is recalling 300,000 cars
this is america no respect for erlderly vet
He was driving a Toyota, so I wonder if hes gas pedal got stuck
The place of the occurrence is a conservative synagogue,which I wouldn’t necessarily refer to as a “Shul”.
Does that mean that every Toyota owner can be careless & crash & claim that its Toyota’s fault?