Cosmic Rays, Seriously

This is a follow-up post on the case of Koua Fong Lee, a St. Paul man who was convicted of criminal vehicular homicide after his Toyota accelerated beyond his control on a Twin Cities highway off-ramp, killing two people and injuring several others. He was released from prison in 2010 after serving more than three years of an eight-year sentence. He later was paid restitution by the state for his wrongful conviction and won a civil trial against Toyota.

A recent Radiolab broadcast gave a possible explanation for what happened to Lee's Toyota and the other Toyotas that accelerated uncontrollably. It has to do with cosmic rays, and it affects voting machines, too. Seriously.

Worth a listen.

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If the Koua Fong Lee case is new to you, here are my past posts:

Let Koua Fong Lee go, March 2010
Deadly crashes, disparate justice, March 2010
Koua Fong Lee update, April 2010
Koua Fong Lee: Latest sentence shows unequal justice, April 2010
Rally to free Koua Fong Lee, July 2010
At the rally, August 2010
Koua Fong Lee is free, August 2010
Emily Gurnon, hero of the Koua Fong Lee case, August 2010
Looking sorry saves you three years in jail, April 2011
Koua Fong Lee graduates, May 2014