Drivers Should Consider Floor Mat Safety

When you think about car safety, you think brakes, air bags and seat belts. Now, you should check floor mats, too.

In this image provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, accelerator...

In this image provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, accelerator interference caused by an out-of-position all-weather floor mat is demonstrated. Toyota Motor Corp. on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009 said it will recall 3.8 million vehicles in the United States, the company's largest-ever U.S. recall, to address problems with a removable floor mat that could cause accelerators to get stuck and lead to a crash. (AP Photo/National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)

(AP)

The carpet in the driver's footwell is at the center of what will be Toyota's largest-ever U.S. vehicle recall, prompted by a fatal crash.

The problem: Gas pedals in some Toyotas could become caught under the edge of floor mats. That may have led to a car cash that killed four people in August outside San Diego.

Toyota Motor Co. is working to fix the problem and on Tuesday issued a safety advisory urging owners of 3.8 million car and trucks — including popular models like Camry, Prius and Tacoma — to remove driver-side mats. It wants drivers to watch out for loose or incorrect mats that could slide out of position and cover pedals.

"Anything that's in the footwell — whether it's your flip-flops or a bottle of water or the floor mat — it poses a danger," says Toyota spokesman John Hanson said.

The warning affects 2007-2010 model year Toyota Camry, 2005-2010 Toyota Avalon, 2004-2009 Toyota Prius, 2005-2010 Tacoma, 2007-2010 Toyota Tundra, 2007-2010 Lexus ES350 and 2006-2010 Lexus IS250 and IS350.

There are several steps to take to make sure floor mats don't become a danger. Most important is to ensure that the mat is properly secured so it doesn't cause what one engineer called an "edge jam." Most automakers have a system that keeps floor mats in place. Many use a hook system that fastens the mat to the floorboard.

Rubber-backed carpeted mats that come with many vehicles are firm enough to keep a gas pedal depressed, said William Rosenbluth, principal engineer at Automotive Systems Analysis Inc. in Reston, Va.

Floor mats sold in auto parts stores generally are too flimsy to cause problems with a gas pedal, says Rosenbluth, who investigates the causes of car crashes. Still, some higher-quality aftermarket mats are stiff enough to cause trouble.