neutral? no, i m trying to control the car. bill: it just went from there, on. and on. that brings us to because you asked today, we re getting more e-mails on this story than any other. why can t the people with the runaway toyota slip the shift lever into neutral or the gear shift? know what we re talking about? is it that simple? lauren fixx is the car coach and also a mechanic. lauren, welcome back to america s newsroom , nice to see you again. is it that simple, put it into neutral and you re okay? well, you can put a car into neutral. driving here, i did the same thing, i put the car into neutral. i don t think people ever use neutral unless you re driving a manual transmission so if you haven t done that i a problem try putting it in neutral, you ll be how surprised how simple it is and that would have been one of the best ways to save this gentleman. bill: we re watching this now, this is based on tanhe
it would shut things down. are you a fan of that? the problem is i don t think most consumers know how to use it. as a race car driver, any car has a kill switch, you turn it off, there s no power, no electricity, no gas t. does work, the problem is you have to make sure the consumers are educated. that s the problem when it comes tothy of any of these things we ve been discussing, people aren t trained, the last thing they learned when they were 16 years old, how to pass the driving test, they don t go to the driving schools to be safer drivers. i make my kids go through it because i want them to be safe on the road. that s what people need. megyn: what s the book? lauren fixx s guide to loving your car. megyn: the best to you. if you ve ever been in a snowstorm, chances are you ve thrown a snow bawl, maybe you ve pelted your friend for fun, maybe you started a brawl, but bet you didn t wind up behind bars!
computer crash could have catastrophic consequences, as it did here. we re going 120, mission gorge, we re in trouble, there s no brake. we re approaching interstate whoa! hello? megyn: just awful. so how can you keep your car from winding up in this position? lauren fixx is car coach and auto expert. lauren, this is so scare question scary, our entire cars are basically run by computer now, so whether you have toyota or another brand you ve got a car that relies on a computer and the question is if this potentially happens to you, what do you do? if your car suddenly accelerates beyond your control, what are you supposed to do? you have to do what you can. in this case, first thing i would do, i m a race car driver so my reaction would be to put it in neutral. once it s in neutral there s no connection between the engine and wheels moving.