Runaway Toyota Prius stopped by US highway patrol

[G_j]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/09/runaway-toyota-prius-stopped

Runaway Toyota Prius stopped by US highway patrol
• Driver called officers on mobile phone as car reached speeds of 94mph
• Toyota sends specialist to investigate the incident

Graeme Wearden
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 9 March 2010 08.52 GMT


Toyota's safety crisis deepened further last night when police officers in California were called to stop a runaway Prius that was accelerating out of control on a busy highway.

The driver, 61 year-old James Sikes, called Highway Patrol officers on his mobile phone after the 2008 Prius suddenly began to accelerate of its own accord while he was driving down the Interstate 8 freeway outside San Diego. The vehicle reached speeds of 94mph during the incident, which lasted more than 20 minutes.

Sikes said the accelerator pedal was stuck, and that the car would not stop even though he was pressing the brake with all his force.

"I pushed the gas pedal to pass a car, and it just did something kind of funny … and it just stuck there," Sikes told a news conference outside a Highway Patrol office following the incident. "As I was going, I was trying the brakes … and it just kept speeding up."


..more..

[HopeHoops]

1. I still don't believe a Prius can reach that speed. They're always in the "granny lane".

I'm all for hybrids, but those things are road obstructions and ugly as sin. To be fair, that tissue box on wheels that Honda makes is much uglier.

[Fumesucker]

4. Nope, Steve Wozniak of Apple got busted at 105 in a Prius..

http://www.ecorazzi.com/2007/08/21/steve-wozniak-receives-700-ticket-for-105mph-in-a-prius/

[HopeHoops]

5. Yeah, but I bet he had is iPhone plugged into it and "an App for that".

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. My civic can outspeed some sports cars

which is funny as hell.

Granted, it sounds like a golf car on steroids, but that's another bidness.

[HopeHoops]

32. Yeah, well, that is a golf cart compared to my '68 Galaxie with a 390.

The speedometer only goes up to 120, but the engine keeps going WAY after it is pegged. That's a little frightening, but I haven't taken it over 100 in at least 20 years, well, maybe a few times.

[nadinbrzezinski]

41. The last thing I could really speed on was a 1957

ambulance. It was a caddy. It had the best suspension I have ever ridden on. or for that matter driven, and we really never found out just how fast it could go.

What is funny as hell is that those things, especially in small towns, served as ambulances one hour and hearses the next.

[CreekDog]

38. This story is completely wrong

US Highway Patrol my a... :rofl:

[nadinbrzezinski]

42. I'll forgive the mistake to the Guardian

in the UK... they do not have a highway patrol by county... or region.

Though it was jarring the fist time I heard it.

[elocs]

2. A huge thread from last night about this with 31 Recs:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4299000

[Brickbat]

3. I heard a Toyota commercial on the radio this weekend that was full of Toyota owners (or actors paid

to sound like Toyota owners) who had bought new Toyotas, even after the obvious widespread problems finally became public. One perky gal says something like, "When my friends found out I was buying a new Toyota, they were like, 'are you shur?' And I was like, yeah, I'm shur, because I've always had Toyotas and I've NEVER had a problem!"

And it cracked my shit up.

[Romulox]

13. Buy a newspaper subscription instead, Ms. Toyota "consumer"!

(that's directed toward the 20 something Toyota "consumer" on the ad)

My thought is Toyota should just keep its mouth shut, 'cause the commercials just remind me of the scandal.

:silly:

[Brickbat]

15. Totally agree keeping its mouth shut.

Or at least, don't make a kicky airhead your spokeswoman. It's just not a good idea.

[Canuckistanian]

14. "Once you buy a Toyota, you'll never stop"

I'd like to hear an ad like that.

[Brickbat]

16. LMFAO.

:thumbsup:

[HopeHoops]

33. "Once you try camel, you'll never go back"

Old Mid-Eastern joke.

[doc03]

6. I don't believe it, I think the guy is just trying to cash

in on Toyota. About 15 years ago there was a similar problem with Mercurys. My car was parked in a Wal-Mart lot and this guy with a Mercury ran into my car. I was paged to come to the customer service desk on the store intercom. When I arrived at the service desk the shopping cart collector hands me my license plate, he was an eye witness to the accident. He said he saw the guy and his wife pulling into the parking space in front of my car, he said the guy and his wife were arguing and he just ran into my car. After he hit my car the guy puts the car in reverse and took off. Meanwhile we call the police and while the Police were writing up the report the guy comes driving up. He claimed his gas peddle stuck and he went off to call the Police to report the accident. The guy begs me not to turn it in on my insurance and a couple days later I get a call from Ford Motor Company in Dearborn Michigan telling me to take my car in to any dealer and they would fix everything. I later found out that he had claimed the gas peddle stuck and Ford paid to fix both of our cars, I also found he had a history of DWI arrests.

[Brickbat]

7. Twenty minutes is a long time to be driving at 90 miles an hour just for some cash.

[Fumesucker]

9. Not when you have people passing you on both sides..

http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/2897

Asked if he tried shifting into neutral, he said he did not initially because he was afraid he would be hit by another vehicle if his car halted too suddenly. “There were cars all around me. They were passing me left and right…They kept someone on the line but I couldn’t hold onto the phone. I kept yelling so they would know where I was. Then I finally saw a CHP car.”

[Brickbat]

10. Well, I always hear that the traffic in California is crazy.

Heh.

[TwixVoy]

27. Idiot

What a stupid ass line of "proof" you have.

He probably meant to say HE was passing THEM....

[Fumesucker]

28. I love you too, TV.

"Asked if he tried shifting into neutral, he said he did not initially because he was afraid he would be hit by another vehicle if his car halted too suddenly."

I guess you missed that part..

[doc03]

11. Maybe he knew he was caught speeding and that was his

excuse. Hey I tried the old gas peddle excuse more than once in my younger days, still got a ticket. A few years ago my mother tells me the engine in her car is misfiring. So I go out the road and the car runs just fine at 40-45 MPH. So I thought well maybe it is happening at a higher speed so I get the thing up to 60 MPH. The next thing I know I get pulled over for doing 60 MPH in a 45 MPH zone. I told the Cop the truth about what happened and his comment was it looked like in was running pretty good to him. Still got a ticket.

[Kalyke]

12. Uh... the trooper SAW this guys STANDING on his breaks and

NOTHING was happening - at least that was the way it was reported this morning on the radio news.

[Romulox]

19. Everybody is lying but the multinational corp! The gov't, the dead people, EVERYBODY!

[anonymous171]

34. Toyota is the Apple of the automobile industry.

In the eyes of their fans they can do no wrong.

[Fumesucker]

20. Yes, and it was reported all over the news that Iraq had WMDs..

You know, north, east, south and west of somewhere in Iraq..

More than a few Americans still believe that too.

[anonymous171]

37. Right. Toyota, the huge coporation, is the victim here. nt

[951-Riverside]

21. I don't think its possible to actually look in that car and see this guy with his foot in the breaks

...unless the officer was in the passenger side of his own car, the driver had his windows down and they were driving side by side. OTOH He could have been jumping up and down in his seat and the officer simply interpreted it as him standing on his breaks.

[LiberalArkie]

22. The officer reported that he could smell the hot brakes from his car.

And the brake lights were on...

[spoony]

35. The cop must be in on it!

Sarcasm, of course. I don't know where some of these people are coming from thinking the guy is lying. It would be utterly insane to try a stunt like that, let alone to involve 911 and cops.

[951-Riverside]

44. "It would be utterly insane to try a stunt like that, let alone to involve 911 and cops."

...You can't possibly be that naive.

Research these names.

George W. Bush (claimed iraq had stockpiles of WMD's and was an imminent threat to the US).
Richard Heene (claimed his son was in a homemade balloon).
Susan Smith (murdered her two children but claimed a black man did it).
Crystal Mangum (falsely accused several lacrosse players of rape).
Anna Ayala (claimed there a a severed finger in her bowl of Wendy's chili).

...and the list goes on.

The cop must be in on it!

No, That seems unlikely. As I said before "He could have been jumping up and down in his seat and the officer simply interpreted it as him standing on his breaks.".

[GodlessBiker]

17. I have a 2007 Prius. Since the car in the post is a 2008, I'm sure I have nothing to worry about.

:hurts:

[951-Riverside]

18. I think Mr. Sikes is lying

I watched an interview with him last night, he always looked down and he seemed to be overacting a bit. Unfortunately for us or fortunately for him there is no way possible to prove that he is lying.

Anna Ayala, Richard Heene and Nicole White all comes to mind.

[ashling]

23. Huzzah for the US Higway Patrol

:patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot:

:rofl::rofl::rofl:
:rofl::rofl::rofl:
:rofl::rofl::rofl:
:rofl::rofl::rofl:

[Fumesucker]

24. I was wondering if anyone else had noticed..

:crazy:

[Brickbat]

25. That was cracking me up, too.

[ashling]

43. I think we should withdraw the troops from Afghanistan

and send in the U.S. Highway Patrol
:patriot:

[TwilightGardener]

29. It was CHiPS, dammit! Ponch and...the other guy.

[CreekDog]

36. 7 Mary 3

aka "Jon".

:rofl:

[upi402]

26. I test drove Scion and Toyotas. Accelerator made me reject them

Both seemed non-responsive, non-linear. I didn't feel securely in control, so kept my 6 year old Toyota. If Scion is Toyota, why don't I hear about them having the same trouble?

[walldude]

30. Ok ... stupid question here.

How do you get a "runaway car"? I mean if my gas pedal got stuck I would shift into neutral and turn the car off... call me crazy.

[doc03]

31. My opinion Toyota has lots of money and you are going to

get people coming out of the woodwork with all kinds of accusations.

[Fumesucker]

39. You'd be amazed at how many people don't have any idea what neutral is for..

When the first well known incident with the CHP officer in the Lexus happened someone at Toyota was quoted that even a lot of people at the company didn't know what neutral was for..

There are a great many people these days who have never even tried to drive a manual transmission car and that is really where you learn the concept of having a neutral gear.

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/oct/18/business/fi-toyota-recall18

"I think it's possible to get the shifter confused, but I can't be sure that's what happened" in San Diego, Lyons said. "You'd be surprised how many people around here don't know what the neutral position is for."

[Electric Monk]

40. This particular story smells like "balloon boy" to me.

I hope he enjoys his 15 minutes.