Expert: Inspection of Toyota in fatal Minn. crash showed cruise-control problems

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An inspection of a 1996 Camry that was involved in a St. Paul crash that killed three people has yielded possible indications of a problem with the cruise control.

Last week an expert mechanic retained by attorneys for Koua Fong Lee, the man driving the car in the June 10, 2006. crash, "came out and said, 'It seems like there's something wrong with this cruise control,' " said Robert Hilliard, a Corpus Christi, Texas, attorney representing Lee.

The Ramsey County attorney's office, which arranged for the inspection and has its own expert there, declined comment until the process was complete.

In addition, the St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper obtained a letter from Hilliard indicating that Lee was stepping on the brakes at the time of the crash -- contrary to what prosecutors and his own attorney said at trial.

The letter -- written a year before the criminal trial -- from Lee's civil attorney, details the results of an inspection by an expert he hired.

The letter says the inspector, Rickey Stansifer, examined the Camry at the St. Paul police impound lot on Oct. 24, 2006 l.

"Mr. Stansifer did note that the mechanism in which the break (sic) lights shattered on impact confirmed that the vehicle was engaged in a braking maneuver at the time of the crash," attorney Mark Solheim wrote.

Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100427/OEM/100429844/1290#ixzz0mKsGdcli


Maybe now justice will be served.

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1. More

Lee, 32, of St. Paul, was sentenced to eight years in prison after a Ramsey County jury found him guilty of criminal vehicular homicide, criminal vehicular injury and careless driving.

He and his family were coming home from church on a sunny Saturday afternoon when his 1996 Camry reached speeds of up to 90 mph at the end of the Snelling Avenue off-ramp from eastbound Interstate 94.

At the time, Lee insisted his brakes were not working, but equipment experts testified that they found nothing wrong.

Prosecutors said he drove the car "like it was shot out of a rocket."

Lee's defense attorney at trial said he remembers seeing the letter from Solheim but that it didn't change his approach to the case.

"Stepping on the brake would not have presented us with any argument as to why the vehicle went from 55 to 80 miles per hour on an uphill exit," said Tracy Eichhorn-Hicks. "We had to come up with something to talk to the jury about to explain what happened.

"The story as you look at it now, makes perfect sense," he said. "At the time, there was a big hole that we had no explanation for."



Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100427/OEM/100429844/1290#ixzz0mKtLY3d6

[DainBramaged]

2. People, this is about a man who's car was OUT OF CONTROL due to unintended acceleration

and NO ONE BELIEVED HIM. HE was WRONGFULLY CONVICTED.

[spanone]

3. k&r....