Failures of vehicle components that caused road accidents used to be categorised as: design failures, manufacturing failures, maintenance problems or fatigue etc. The usual solutions used by the manufacturers were either recall campaigns to replace failed components with a similar type, or changes in maintenance procedure instructions.
With the development of many new electronic devices and computers in vehicles, these new elements became critical to the vehicle's proper operation. The whole operation of the vehicle is controlled by computers. The computers sense the environment, the vehicles status and the driver's instructions, relying on various sensors, all of which have electronic outputs. According to these readings, the computers operate the vehicle elements. Faults in any of these elements can and do cause accidents.
This paper will analyse an accident which occurred due to a failure of an electronic component. The vehicle involved was a Mitsubishi Grandis. The accident caused the death of eight occupants, only one passenger survived this accident. After the analysis of this accident, we searched for other cars, either the same type or with the same electronics, which had a similar problem.
We found a few cars that were of the same make, but from a different manufacturing year, and some other cars with the same electronics. All the examined cars demonstrated the same faulty electronic accelerator.