But- Are the deaths due to the drivers not adapting quickly enough to the loss of power steering? After all breaks and steer are still working?
I have driven a vehicle without power steering and it wasn't that bad, and the vehicles in question (Cobalts) are rather light.
I think a lot of these accidents are indeed caused by drivers panicking from being completely out of touch with what the car is doing, but that does not mean there is a straightforward solution. Knowing what a failure of power steering/brakes feels like, I'd just coast over to the breakdown lane and stop with the hand brake/engine. On the other hand, I once had a passenger (in my old automatic transmission car) accidentally bump it into neutral when I was on the highway and it took me ten seconds to figure out what was going on.
Is this use of "because" correct? Sure, why not. He wouldn't have died if his bonus had been paid? Might well be true.
I would personally not be interested in "due to" and "because of". To answer your question, you could have asked instead,
"I wonder if experienced drivers who were used to driving without power steering would have not been adversely affected."
Note: my example is a case where blaming a lack of bonus on the death is clearly wrong - but isn't attributing causative power to someone not being used to a car suddenly changing into a totally different input paradigm equally wrong? Better to stick to the factual question for starters.
Yes power steering loss makes the car very sluggish, but really you're just coasting at that point and turning the ignition switch quickly is second nature. I'm sure it could be a little more frantic at highway speeds.
I wonder if this is something that should be taught in driver's ed?
(Regardless of my above comments, I do agree GM is responsible for sweeping this under the rug)
Fortunately the road was straight and after about 3 second it came back on as I was trying to see where the edge of the road was, and no other cars were around (although that would probably have helped me see or regain perspective).
It's easy to imagine how I could have rolled off into a ravine regardless if I could forcibly steer the car.
Regardless, while driving without power steering and brakes is possible when you're expecting it, it's quite a shock when you aren't. Especially if you've never done it before, which I suspect is true for many of today's drivers.
I can easily envision circumstances where loss of power could cause an accident. Fast road, sharp corner, surrounded by woods, etc.