de autos cars

While we wait for word on the cause of a 76-year old Wisconsin woman's alleged runaway Toyota Camry incident,  here are some interesting statistics on age and accidents.

TheAutoInsurance.com finds that more teens per capita are involved in fatal crashes, but more elderly drivers are at fault.  Graphic and facts here.

It's been almost two weeks since 76-year old Myrna Marsellie said her 2009 Toyota Camry accelerated on its own, crashing into the Sheboygan Falls YMCA.

So what happened? We don't know yet.

Sheboygan Falls Police Chief Steven Riffel tells me the car is still in his department's custody and there will be a joint NHTSA/Wisconsin State Patrol inspection of the vehicle and search of the car's databases sometime this week.

The department is also in the process of enhancing surveillance video (the police station is across the parking lot from the YMCA and its cameras are thought to have captured the crash).

What about Toyota, which usually gets inspectors on these things quickly (given that most cases of unintended acceleration upon investigation are proven to be driver error...standing on the gas instead of the brake)?

Well, the chief says Toyota's asking, but he's got a search warrant...and he doesn't want too many folks inside the vehicle. NHTSA and the state patrol get first dibs. And he tells me he'll be looking for NHTSA's input as to whether to release the vehicle to Toyota for its inspection, or back to Myrna.

NHTSA, of course, is the agency alleging that Toyota hid dangerous defects and should pay record fines.

This is not Toyota's week for catching a break, it seems.

76 year old Myrna Marseille of Wisconsin was parking her 2009 Toyota Camry at the local YMCA when she says it accelerated suddenly...into the Y's wall.

She insists her foot was on the brake, not on the gas.

Toyota tells WISN-TV it's investigating. Potentially helpful...the Sheboygan Falls Police Department is right across the parking lot from the Y....and has security cameras that may have caught the entire event.

Watch the story from WISN-TV here.