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 ...
They probably caught him speeding and he just said the accelerator was stuck... LOL...
That’s what I’m sayin’....
And why don’t the drivers stop depressing the gas pedal?
Ummmm... the cruise control did it... was stuck on 120 MPH... LOL....
I didn’t even know Toyota make keyboards but I was in Best Buy today and picked this one uppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp
I’m personally qequivocal as to whether this phenom is reality or fantasy. I believe Toyota generally builds fine quality cars.
But I would opine that there is a computer programming fault when, should the computer detect simultaneous “energetic” depression of *both* the brake and the gas pedals, it doesn’t either crank back the gas or assign priority to the brake. Or both.
NO car needs to have the brake on to be put into neutral!
My accelerator stuck wide open on my Delta 88 while I was commuting into Detroit on M-14. I waited a few miles for a better exit with a service station. I wasn’t traveling much faster than the flow of traffic (I was going about 95mph).
Cars back in Al’s day had vacuum powered wipers and Al would pull the hose off and go down Mulholland drive backfiring all the way to he bottom... at 3AM while Al drank his 14th Lucky Lager tossing the bottles out the window...
BAD idea for a woman with power steering. Put the thing in neutral to disengage the tranny.
Is there a reason (besides stupidity) why the ingition can’t be turned to the off position on these cars?
These stories are so implausible.
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local-beat/Runaway-Prius-Needs-Help-to-StopCHP-86965487.html
“”Sikes said his Prius seemed to be accelerating on its own — reaching speeds of more than 90 mph on Interstate 8 at one point — before he called the California Highway Patrol. A CHP officer was able to locate Sikes, then pull alongside him and instruct him over the patrol car’s PA system on how to slow the car down. Eventually, after the Prius stopped, the officer placed his patrol vehicle in front of the car as it came to a stop in the No. 1 lane of eastbound I-8. Initial reports from the CHP incorrectly stated that the patrol car pulled in front of the Prius, acting as an additional brake to get the car to stop.
Sikes said he was standing on the brake pedal, trying to slow down.
“I was on the brakes pretty healthy,” Sikes said. “It wasn’t stopping, it wasn’t doing anything to it, and just kept speeding up, kept going, and I called 911 right away, and they were trying to tell me what to do, but I couldn’t hold the phone and the steering wheel properly at the same time, so I just kept trying my methods, dropped the phone and it just kept going faster. I just stayed on the brakes as much as I could until finally they started smelling really bad and I had metal sounds coming in the car.”
Sikes said the CHP officer arrived shortly afterward and told him to use the emergency brake. He also tried to shut off the car, which it finally did, then he rolled to a stop near the La Posta Bridge in the area of the Golden Acorn Casino.””
Many reports from the people that have experienced these problems state that they made numerous attempts to turn off the key and that did not work either.
I can put my Lexus into neutral with the engine on and the accelerator depressed. It is then a simple matter to brake and pull off the road.
That is what I thought, keep hearing these stories of runaway cars and cannot understand why they don’t shut it down?
On the morning drive to work last week, I got caught behind a vehicle in the right lane that was going about 45 in a 65. As I inched up, I was able to determine that it was a Toyota.
I thought, out loud, “Aren’t these things supposed to go like hell??”
Yep......
Neutral.
Key.
Brakes.
Reminded me of a silly experience in my past lol! I had a 71 Trans Am with a stroker Chevy motor. As I had changed the ignition over and had an MSD box and a hidden switch to control the ignition voltage as a security system, one day while driving I realized I only needed the ignition to start the car. So I switched it off while driving....
Shortly after that I realized the steering was locked, shortly after that I was relieved to only hit a stop sign. I knew from experience those suckers go down without a fight. Guess I am just one of those people who learns by peeing on the electric fence.
That was nearly as fun as the time I got a custom built set of leaf springs. I figured these were so badass I didn’t need shocks. Sort of like riding a 460 hp frog through an entrance ramp to 95...
And you make the best point of all. 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?
I have been in the auto repair business for 60 years and I actually don’t know a thing about these Prius hybreds. Was this stretch of hyway downhill?
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