talk about RIGHT ON TOPIC: here's an article from TODAY about a Prius in California.
He claims the accelerator stuck. Again he had enough time to call 911, the helicopter showed up and a police cruiser caught up and pulled in front of him to help him stop. When he got to 50mph he then decided it was a good time to turn the car off and coast to a stop...
this is exactly my point...this is a guy in california who went to have the recall on his car done and they turned him aways...it sounds like this little "stunt" may just be to help support a lawsuit...

Just like I said before these people all claim that the brakes don't work but they've been shown over and over again to work just fine. Anyone wonder why all this is happening now? Why is that these things seem to happen now after everyone is aware and it's received lots of publicity? Or is it just now that people are thinking they could cash in?
Here's the article:
EL CAJON, Calif. – A California Highway Patrol officer helped slow a runaway Toyota Prius from 94 mph to a safe stop on Monday after the car's accelerator became stuck on a San Diego County freeway, the CHP said.

Prius driver James Sikes said that the incident Monday occurred just two weeks after he had taken the vehicle in to an El Cajon dealership for repairs after receiving a recall notice, but he was turned away.

"I gave them my recall notice and they handed it back and said I'm not on the recall list," Sikes said.

In a statement, Toyota said it has dispatched a field technical specialist to San Diego to investigate the incident.

Toyota has recalled some 8.5 million vehicles worldwide — more than 6 million in the United States — since last fall because of acceleration problems in multiple models and braking issues in the Prius.

On Monday, Sikes called 911 about 1:30 p.m. after accelerating to pass another vehicle on Interstate 8 near La Posta and finding that he could not control his car, the CHP said.

"I pushed the gas pedal to pass a car and it did something kind of funny ... it jumped and it just stuck there," the 61-year-old driver said at a news conference.

"As it was going, I was trying the brakes ... it wasn't stopping, it wasn't doing anything and it just kept speeding up," Sikes said, adding he could smell the brakes burning he was pressing the pedal so hard.

A patrol car pulled alongside the Prius and officers told Sikes over a loudspeaker to push the brake pedal to the floor and apply the emergency brake.

"They also got it going on a steep upgrade," said Officer Jesse Udovich. "Between those three things, they got it to slow down."

After the car decelerated to about 50 mph, Sikes turned off the engine and coasted to a halt.

The officer then maneuvered his car in front of the Prius as a precautionary block, Udovich said.

Toyota owners have complained of their vehicles speeding out of control despite efforts to slow down, sometimes resulting in deadly crashes. The government has received complaints of 34 deaths linked to sudden acceleration of Toyota vehicles since 2000.

One of the crashes claimed the life of a CHP officer in August.

Off-duty CHP Officer Mark Saylor was killed along with his wife, her brother and the couple's daughter after their Lexus' accelerator got stuck in La Mesa.

The Toyota-manufactured loaner vehicle slammed into a sport utility vehicle at about 100 mph, careened off the freeway, hit an embankment, overturned and burst into flames

 

A prius is hardly your standard Toyota with a regular trans. Regenerative brakes don't help.

Have you seen a shifter on a prius? It has 3 positions.

And no, I have absolutely no clue how to make a prius go into neutral.

 

I smell BS on that Prius incident.

 

ahhhh..... nothing surprises me at all these days.. seen this shiat comin from a mile away.. i wouldnt have the heart to pull that scam off but in every nook and corner of the world theres hurtin people out there that need the attention and money.. there was even a lady that said she back into another car and blamed it on the car on the news. u could tell in the interview she was so full of ****..so dramatic..holy fak! her kid wouldnt even look up at the camera or reporter when he was spoken too just muttered some shiat his mom told him to say real slow and stupid. um um the petal got stuck.. and this shiat happened 3 weeks before the interview. wow fat *** mom gets into a fender bender at a parking lot of all places and blames it on that after the story comes out 3 weeks later. as if.. how fast can u back up any ways to lose control and not be able to stop? she looked like a scammer saying oh i cant even sell my car now its worth nothing blah blah blah!!

 

You put the gear selector into N.

My neighbour has a Prius. You put it into neutral just like a regular car the drive train disconnects from the wheels.

I find it hard to believe that this guy had no idea what to do after all the news stories and discussion where everyone was saying "Put it into neutral".

 

Actually, that doesn't work when the vehicle is in movement. You have to hold it in the neutral position for it to go to neutral. Or, as previously mentioned, you can put it in reverse, and it'll automatically go to neutral.

When you "tap" it into neutral like you'd think is normal, it does nothing, as neutral is a 'pass through' between D and B.

 

Hmm OK, well it still has a neutral funtion. Sounds like owners need to read their manuals.

 

This generation of Prius involved has a brake override system. Once the brake pedal is depressed a certain amount, the throttle closes.

someone at another forum tried to replicate the results:
NASIOC - View Single Post - NY Times unintended aceleration, solution
And the people at PriusChat.com are saying the guy is full of it, and they are Prius experts:
Why the "Out of Control" Prius Driver Is Full of It | PriusChat

 

A lot of opinions here, but the guy was on the news last night and seemed genuinely upset and scared of what happened. At 90+ miles per hour on a winding road there was obviously something wrong regardless of what every thinks he should have done. Even the cop smelled the burning brakes as he came up on him. I'll wait for the facts.

 

The guy's a bum.
Just because he rode the brakes for a mile or two and they started burning doesn't mean they werent' working.

This is such a bunch of crap it makes me wanna puke.

 

He probably didn't put anywhere near enough pressure to stop the car... just enough to keep on heating his brake pads...

 

20 minutes in LA traffic and still has time to use the phone? I bet he just wanted to use the toll lane.

There are so many examples showing how these things are false.

Honestly I don't even think the officer who died had the entire story told. Somethings not right in that story either.

 

People with the same model Prius as the guy had tried to replicate the scenario and the as soon as the brakes were pressed the throttle cut completely. So either there is something seriously wrong with this guy's car and the failsafe mechanism didn't work or he's lying. It wasn't just a stuck throttle problem becuase if that were the case hitting the brake would have automatically closed the throttle regardless of pedal position.

 

The black box data that the dealer is pouring over now should reveal what pedals were actually being pushed. We'll see...

 

Here's the latest from the CR Cars Blog:

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Monday afternoon, Jim Sikes called 9-1-1 to report that his Prius accelerator was stuck. He was speeding in excess of 80 mph on a highway and eventually crested 90 mph. (Read: "Toyota Prius investigated after high-speed sudden acceleration incident.")

During the call, the 9-1-1 operator properly suggested putting the car in Neutral.

In a CNN interview, Sikes said "I was afraid to go over there and put it in Neutral. I was holding on to the steering wheel with both hands."
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This is a damnation of our driver licensing system... Another reason this doesn't happen or almost never happens in Europe.

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