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SANTEE, Calif.,—
There are new details into a crash that occured in August that killed off-duty CHP officer Mark Saylor, his wife, daughter, and brother-in-law.The San Diego County Sheriff's report, obtained by Fox 5, states that the car, a white Lexus ES 350, may have had accelerator problems three days before the crash that killed Saylor and his family.
" Somebody else had the same loaner vehicle that Mark Saylor was driving, returned it three days before our incident, and had the exact same thing happen," said attorney John Gomez, who is representing Saylor's family.
The report, which describes the other driver's statement, states that on August 25th, the driver of the loaner car was, "on the Poway on-ramp to Interstate 15 North. As he was merging onto the freeway, he saw a truck nearby and accelerated "briskly" to get in front of it. Witness got onto the freeway, and once in front of the truck, let his foot off the accelerator. V1 kept accelerating on its own, to about 80-85 mph."
The statement also reads the driver, "kept on the brakes, slowing V1 to 25-30 mpg and puleed over to the shoulder."
Eventually the driver was able to stop along the side of the road, according to the report.
The report also states the driver said the driver-side floor mat was "a big heavy rubber mat in place to protect the car better.
The driver then took the car back to Bob Baker Lexus in El Cajon, where he also got the car as a loaner vehicle.
"...and complains about what happened, and apparently, and it appears they did nothing about it," said Gomez.
In the 'cause" section of the report, it states, "Because this mat was not a part specific to the vehicle it was installed in, there is indication it may have cause d a suddent unintended acceleration event."
It continues by stating, "The accelerator pedal became trapped either in the grooves of the mat or underneath it. The size of the mat with relation to the size of the floor board, did not allow room for easy manipulation to clear the pedal (the SUV mat is much larger than the sedan mat).
It also states, "Saylor simply ran out of time and options."
An attorney representing the dealership said he will comment on the Sheriff's report sometime next week. Toyota representatives could not be reached for comment. However the company did issue a large recall that involves gas pedals in about 40-million cars. It's set to begin in January.
As for the family attorney's this new report is devastating.
"They're having to learn for the first time, that the entire accident was avoidable," said John Pestotnik, attorney representing victim Chris Lastrella.
