news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_runaway_prius
Driver James Sikes talks about his experiences in his Toyota Prius during a news AP - Driver James Sikes talks about his experiences in his Toyota Prius during a news conference held at Toyota ... By ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press Writer Elliot Spagat, Associated Press Writer - 35 mins ago EL CAJON, Calif. A day after state troopers helped the car slow to a stop and its driver to emerge unharmed, Toyota could shed no new light on what might have gone wrong. The Prius is not part of Toyota's vast recall of gas pedals that can become stuck, but it is covered by an earlier recall of floor mats that can catch the accelerator. The freeway incident happened at the worst possible time for Toyota -- just hours after it invited reporters Monday to hear experts insist that electronic flaws could not cause cars to speed out of control under real driving conditions. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sent two investigators to examine the car, a government spokeswoman said. spokesman Brian Lyons said the automaker is sending three of its own technicians to investigate. Another Toyota spokesman, John Hanson, said the company wanted to talk to the driver, James Sikes. His car, a 2008 model, was covered by the floor mat recall, but the driver in Monday's incident said the pedal jammed and was not trapped under the mat. Sikes told authorities he was driving on Interstate 8 outside San Diego when the accelerator became stuck. He said the car reached 94 mph before a trooper, calling out instructions from a megaphone, helped him slow down and turn off the engine. Sikes' wife, Patty, said Tuesday the family's Prius appeared to have a brief accelerator malfunction a few weeks ago. James Sikes, 61, was identified in a 2006 newspaper story as a real estate executive and longtime lottery player who won $55,000 and was selected to appear on a California Lottery TV game show. He appeared at a news conference quickly after the freeway incident Monday and also spoke to reporters Tuesday at his Toyota dealership, where his car was towed. He said he called 911 about 1:30 pm Monday after accelerating to pass another car on Interstate 8 near La Posta. "I pushed the gas pedal to pass a car and it did something kind of funny. A patrol car pulled alongside the Prius and the officer told Sikes over a loudspeaker to push the brake pedal to the floor and apply the emergency brake. The braking, coupled with a steep incline on the freeway, slowed the car to about 50 mph. Sikes said he then shut off the engine and the car coasted to a stop. CHP Officer Todd Neibert then moved his car in front of the Prius to block it. The CHP held the car overnight, and it was towed to the dealership Tuesday, CHP Officer Brian Pennings said. "There's no collision, so our investigation's done," Pennings said. Toyota, which has watched its reputation for quality crumble because of recalls tied to risks that cars can accelerate uncontrollably or can't brake properly. The company is defending itself against suggestions that bad electronics are to blame for the problem -- not simpler mechanical flaws, as Toyota maintains. An Illinois professor told Congress he was able to rev a Toyota's engine simply by short-circuiting wires connected to the accelerator pedal. Toyota's experts characterized the professor's work as wrong and said it could incite fear. The runaway Prius only makes matters worse for Toyota's image problem, said Larry L Smith, president of the Institute for Crisis Management in Louisville, Ky. "People are going to see this video and assume they've seen the car out of control," he said. The Sikes family received a recall notice and took the Prius to Toyota of El Cajon about two weeks ago, but the dealership refused to examine the car, saying it was not on the recall list, Patty Sikes said. The dealership declined to comment and referred requests for comment to Toyota's corporate representatives. Hanson said Toyota first sends a preliminary notice to owners saying their vehicles are subject to a recall. A second notice comes later detailing how and where the vehicle can be fixed. CHP Officer Mark Saylor, his wife, her brother and the couple's daughter died after the accelerator in their Lexus became trapped by a wrong-size floor mat on a freeway in La Mesa. The loaner car hit a sport utility vehicle and burst into flames. Since then, Toyota has recalled some 85 million vehicles worldwide -- more than 6 million in the United States -- because of acceleration problems in multiple models and braking issues in the Prius. Regulators have linked 52 deaths to crashes allegedly caused by accelerator problems. Still, there have been more than 60 reports of sudden acceleration in cars that have been fixed under the recall. John Heywood, director of the Sloan Automotive Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said it was difficult glean any larger insight into Toyota's problems based on a single incident. "They're not happening all the time they're happening rarely, so sorting out what the cause is a very challenging task," he said.
Report Abuse If this happens, put the car in neutral, coast to the side of the road and stop. Leave the engine running so you have the power steering and brakes until you manage to stop the car. The electronics should not allow the engine to overrev so you don't have to worry about it blowing up, but even if it does you're still alive.
And i see a bunch of people making there way to fatter wallets. Why when the big 3 are struggling does this problem happen. Oh as long as the engine has power this so called accelorater will continue to stick. and there are still brakes, minimal but use th E- brake,its mechanical.
the N stands for Neutral which will disengage the transmission thus stopping the engine from applying power to the wheels. Putting the car in neutral while the pedal is stuck will cause the engine to rev up like crazy but you will be able to simply pull over and once the car comes to a stop, shut the engine off. Why the CHP had this guy breaking and all that is beyond me...
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