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Runaway Prius Needed Help to Stop: CHP
NBCSanDiego.com ^ | 3/8/10 | R. STICKNEY

Posted on 03/08/2010 6:42:10 PM PST by ButThreeLeftsDo

California Highway Patrol officers say their patrol car acted as a brake for a Toyota Prius with a stuck accelerator Monday.

The car, headed eastbound on Interstate 8, was going at a high rate of speed because the accelerator was stuck, according to CHP spokesperson Brian Pennings.

The patrol car moved in front of the Prius and engaged its brakes to bring the Prius to a stop, according to CHP.

The car eventually stopped on the highway near the La Posta Bridge in the area of the Golden Acorn Casino.

(Excerpt) Read more at nbcsandiego.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: automakers; brakes; chp; lawsuits; lawyerswetdreams; legalextortion; prius; recall; toyota
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To: SandRat

“and turn the ignition OFF!”

You lose your beakes!


101 posted on 03/08/2010 7:58:04 PM PST by dalereed
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To: dcgst4
Don’t those drifters from Japan routinely stomp the throttle and hold the brake just let the wheels burn up some rubber (and make a lot of smoke) while sitting still?

Yes, but most of them have installed a line brake (holds the front brakes, but allows the rears to spin). Drag racers have used them for years for the burnout to heat the tires.

102 posted on 03/08/2010 7:59:00 PM PST by IYAS9YAS (The townhalls were going great until the oPods showed up.)
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To: notpoliticallycorewrecked
“I believe that the computer sensor has to recognize that brake is on to allow you to put it into park or neutral. When these cars get possessed the computer doesn’t recognize that the brake pedal is pressed so it doesn’t slow the car or allow it to go into neutral or park.”

send car for exoticism!!!

103 posted on 03/08/2010 8:00:38 PM PST by dalereed
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To: Farmer Dean

Not the best thing to do. turning it off you can’t steer much because the wheel will lock, and turning off the care takes away power steering and power braking. Better to put in neutral and slowly apply the parking break, and if you have to slow down faster than that, you’ve got to try to use the curb or run the car up against a divider - better side damage than dying.


104 posted on 03/08/2010 8:01:14 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: gunsequalfreedom

“Let me know when you get an answer to that one.”

Apparently it engages an “engine braking” mode, similar to the effect one might get by downshifting a normal automatic or manual transmission. Of couse, if the electronics have gone haywire, who knows whether it would have any effect either?

I still have trouble believing that Toyota’s huge engineering team wouldn’t have worked in sufficient fail-safes in these systems that all these systems could fail at once.


105 posted on 03/08/2010 8:01:43 PM PST by -YYZ- (Strong like bull, smart like ox.)
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To: ButThreeLeftsDo

I don’t buy it. This guy is just looking to sue, or for a new car.


106 posted on 03/08/2010 8:09:28 PM PST by kara37
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To: gunsequalfreedom
I'd fix the key but there is no need since no one can figure out out to start it.

My first car was a 1967 Nova with a 327 and a column-shifted 2-speed power-glide. We removed the column shifter, but not the ring and gear indicator and installed a floor shifter. Even in 1967, there was a neutral safety switch to keep you from starting the car in anything but park or neutral. We left that attached to the ring on the column. If you bumped the column ring out of park or neutral, you couldn't start the car, regardless of what position the floor shifter was in.

We really didn't plan it. The new shifter didn't have a mount for the safety switch, so we just left it alone. Took us about 30 minutes one day, while cussing up a storm, to figure out why the car didn't start, to realize what was going on. We'd bumped the ring accidentally while working on the car.

107 posted on 03/08/2010 8:14:52 PM PST by IYAS9YAS (The townhalls were going great until the oPods showed up.)
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To: Inyo-Mono
Its the launch control for racing against ferraris and GTRs. Obviously these dumb liberals keeping putting it in this mode on the freeway and pull a Schmaucher hitting over 90mph.

Actually, B mode is engine braking; using the compression of the gas engine to slow the car down. You dump energy through the engine instead of the brakes. The intent is to slow the car on long descents. Its used because I've heard that when your braking down long hills in a hybrid design like this, prolonged periods of non "B" mode braking will cook the tiny undersized brakes on these cars.

108 posted on 03/08/2010 8:16:00 PM PST by Proud_USA_Republican ("The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.")
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To: danmar
You forgot one thing...the Prius is a hybrid with different plumbing altogether!

Right. I did.

109 posted on 03/08/2010 8:16:06 PM PST by DJ MacWoW (Make yourselves sheep and the wolves will eat you. Ben Franklin)
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To: Hugin

If he was so calm, why didn’t he put the damn thing in Neutral. That will work every time.


110 posted on 03/08/2010 8:19:58 PM PST by packrat35 (Democrat Healthcare is a 9-11 Attack on the Constitution)
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To: al baby

Just so you know, Priuses don’t have clutches, they’re automatic. Different ballgame.


111 posted on 03/08/2010 8:21:35 PM PST by MetaThought
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To: Hugin

Also the steering wheel only locks AFTER you make a turn. Locked steering wheel would still be better than keeping increasing speed till I hit something.


112 posted on 03/08/2010 8:22:00 PM PST by packrat35 (Democrat Healthcare is a 9-11 Attack on the Constitution)
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To: Proud_USA_Republican
Actually, B mode is engine braking; using the compression of the gas engine to slow the car down. You dump energy through the engine instead of the brakes. The intent is to slow the car on long descents. Its used because I've heard that when your braking down long hills in a hybrid design like this, prolonged periods of non "B" mode braking will cook the tiny undersized brakes on these cars.

Same as putting my stick shift in a lower gear when going down a steep hill or downshifting to second just before I come to a stop.

113 posted on 03/08/2010 8:26:44 PM PST by Inyo-Mono (Had God not driven man from the Garden of Eden the Sierra Club surely would have.)
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To: HiTech RedNeck
"Destroying the brakes on a Prius to get out of a ticket would not sound like an attractive option to me."

Right. Also, HE called the cops - THEY didn't "catch" him.

114 posted on 03/08/2010 8:34:38 PM PST by jackibutterfly
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To: packrat35

He did, it didn’t do anything. The “gear shift” is just a switch mechanism that attaches to the chip that runs the transmission. If the chip is malfunctioning, “shifting” to neutral DOES NOTHING.

Like I said, this guy was a trained Highway Patrol officer, not some idiot who didn’t know how to drive. There have been too many other instances where people reported the same thing, all the things that are supposed to work didn’t. The common factor is they are all controlled by a computer chip.


115 posted on 03/08/2010 8:35:25 PM PST by Hugin (Remember the first rule of gunfighting...have a gun..-- Col. Jeff Cooper)
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To: Inyo-Mono

Very similar, although much more complicated because of the small brake design and hybrid engines.
Prius were designed almost exclusively for city driving on flat roads. They perform like crap in the mountains.


116 posted on 03/08/2010 8:38:02 PM PST by Proud_USA_Republican ("The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.")
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To: ButThreeLeftsDo

I don’t understand why people are not turning the IGNITION off. Don’t Toyotas have keys? Ignitions?


117 posted on 03/08/2010 8:42:16 PM PST by bboop (We don't need no stinkin' VAT)
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To: Star Traveler

How could you be in worse trouble turning the ignition off than you would going 90 mph? That doesn’t make sense. No gasoline, voila’.


118 posted on 03/08/2010 8:43:45 PM PST by bboop (We don't need no stinkin' VAT)
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To: Proud_USA_Republican
Prius were designed almost exclusively for city driving on flat roads. They perform like crap in the mountains.

Which is probably why I have never seen one. I live in the mountains.

119 posted on 03/08/2010 9:00:23 PM PST by Inyo-Mono (Had God not driven man from the Garden of Eden the Sierra Club surely would have.)
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To: bboop
You were asking ...

How could you be in worse trouble turning the ignition off than you would going 90 mph? That doesn’t make sense. No gasoline, voila’.

Well, by going 90 MPH and having no steering... and running into a concrete abutment... perhaps... LOL ...

120 posted on 03/08/2010 9:03:39 PM PST by Star Traveler (Remember to keep the Messiah of Israel in the One-World Government that we look forward to coming)
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