Maybe, but the Highway Patrol officer who helped him said there was no doubt that the driver was applying his brakes and the car was not slowing down.
Standing on both pedals may do that.
http://www.king5.com/news/local/Prius-Stopping-87404372.html
Why? Because of the brake lights? That is easy to fake...just lightly touch them. Or maybe because the officer saw the car surge ahead, and fall back, and surge ahead, and fall back...that is also easy to fake. Just alternate brake and throttle. Or maybe the officer somehow saw through the door of the car, and could see that he was in fact sincerely applying the brakes.
About the only way I would accept the officer knowing that the brakes were actually being applied instead of just enough to trip the brake light switch is if he saw and smelled the brakes destruction. And that is easy to fake as well, you just modulate the brakes as you see fit to maintain momentum while straining the brakes. And as has been often pointed out, modern brakes are way more powerful than the respective engine. Especially in a Prius.
Yeah and in his statement to “Inside Edition” he said, “I was pressing the gas pedal as hard as I could.” Apparently he was pushing both the gas and the brakes at the same time. That will definitely burn up a set of brakes. And he shut the car off after the cop told him to pull the emergency brake, but he couldn’t shift into neutral!