LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) - The woman who says her Chevy SUV raced at 90-mile-an-hour speeds on I-64 described the ordeal for WHAS11 News on Wednesday.
Marlene Taylor says she wants General Motors to continue to investigate what happened, but GM says they’re done. The company says they can't find anything wrong with the vehicle.
WHAS11's Anna Prendergast had the exclusive interview with the SUV driver. She talks about why she's decided to come forward now.
Marlene Taylor hired a lawyer shortly after the incident, but has since parted ways with the attorney.
She says she’s not after GM’s money, but wants to speak out because she doesn’t think the company is doing enough to investigate the problem with her car.
“What happened on May 27th is true,” she told WHAS11 News. “I’m not making it up, I don't know why it happened, and apparently, GM doesn’t know why it happened.”
Taylor says she's sticking to her story, even though General Motors says they found no evidence after inspecting her 2008 Chevy Equinox to back it.
The facts are indisputable: Taylor did drive down I-64 with her two toddlers in the back-seat. She went 90 miles per hour for 40 miles, dodging in and out of traffic, until a trooper stopped her with his own car. There's no question she sounded terrified on the 911 tapes.
When Anna Prendergast asked Taylor what went through her head with her babies in the backseat, Taylor said she was terrified.
“I didn't know if I was going to keep the car under control,” Taylor said. “I didn't know how to stop. I was so afraid they [her children] were going to get hurt or possibly killed. I didn't care about myself, I just care about my babies, my girls. I love them very much.”
Taylor said the ordeal started when she turned on cruise-control. She claims she tried putting it in neutral, but says the gear shift was stuck.
She says she never tried turning the keys to the off position because she was scared the steering would lock-up.
Taylor also says she tried slamming the brake numerous times, but nothing happened.
In GM’s review of Taylor’s SUV, they said that if the driver had applied the brakes on the vehicle and cruise did not disengage, that they would expect to see some indication of over-heating, but there was none of that and Taylor’s brakes looked normal.
Taylor told WHAS11 that she didn’t hold the brake the whole time, but did a ‘pumping action’ instead.
Since the incident Taylor says she feels like she's had to defend her story on what happened that day - not just to GM but to people in the community.
“This is true,” she said. “I don’t know why it happened. My car would not slow down no matter what I was instructed to do. Nothing worked. Nothing.”
General Motor inspected Taylor's SUV for two days and sent WHAS11 video of engineers testing out a different Chevy Equinox. The company is standing by their statement that nothing is wrong with the vehicle, but Taylor says she will continue to speak out.
“I want them to find out what wrong with my car, so it doesn't happen to another person or to my daughter and me again. I want them to investigate further,” she said.
When WHAS11’s Anna Prendergast spoke to a General Motors spokesperson on Wednesday, they said that last week someone from the office of Marlene Taylor’s former attorney contacted GM with a demand for a significant cash settlement and a replacement vehicle for Taylor.
Taylor says she did not authorize this demand.
As for any more investigating of Taylor’s vehicle, General Motors says they are done.
