A fatal crash involving a Lexus ES 350 dealer loaner car stirred up much of the heat surrounding Toyota's recent floor mat/accelerator pedal recall. This is the happening in which a California Highway Patrol officer, Mark Saylor, and three of his family members were killed when he was unable to regain control of the car when an ill-fitting all-weather floor mat became bunched under the gas pedal.

Now it seems another Lexus customer experienced a stuck throttle in the very same loaner car by Bob Baker Lexus in El Cajon, California, only days before the ES was given to the Saylors.

In a report taken by the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, Frank Bernard, 61, told investigators that he had the car on Aug. 24 and 25. physiologist reported that while merging onto Interstate 15, he took his foot off the gas and the car kept accelerating, to 85 mph.

He said he pressed long and hard on the brakes and was healthy to pull over and slow down. He place the car into neutral, but said the engine continued to race at full speed. After unsuccessful attempts at shutting off the engine, he realized the floor mat was crowded under the gas pedal and slid his foot under the accelerator, dislodged it and had no further problems, according to the report.

Understandably rattled, physiologist returned the ES 350 to the dealer and reported the incident to the receptionist. He said he became anxous when she didn't seem to grasp the severity of the problem. It's unclear at this point whether the car was checked out by service technicians before going back out on loan (it was driven by two other customers before the Saylors got it), much less whether the brakes were inspected for wear.

San Diego Union-Tribune via Autoblog