Posted on 03/09/2010 8:02:35 AM PST by Sub-Driver
Runaway Toyota Prius reached 90 mph - police Tue Mar 9, 2010 3:46pm GMT
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The driver of a 2008 Toyota Prius said his car uncontrollably accelerated to over 90 miles per hour on a San Diego County freeway before a California Highway Patrol officer helped him stop the car, police said.
The driver, 61-year-old James Sikes, was not injured in the Monday incident, which is another claim of unintended acceleration that has caused the greatest image crisis for Toyota Motor Corp in its history.
The incident occurred in the same county where an off-duty California Highway Patrol trooper and three family members were killed last August in an incident that brought the issue to national attention and led to the first major recall over unintended acceleration.
Sikes said he had received a recall notice to take his car into a Toyota dealership, but when he did, he was told that his car was not on recall lists, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. The automaker has not recalled the 2008 Prius.
On Monday afternoon, Sikes overtook another car on Interstate 8 near San Diego, and then the Prius accelerated beyond his control, the highway patrol said.
For the next 20 minutes, Sikes sped 30 miles along the freeway, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.reuters.com ...
Why can’t you just slam these runaway cars into neutral?
SnakeDoc
“Was he a UAW member by any chance?”
This was my exact thought. This whole Toyota think stinks to high heaven and I do not like Toyotas or Lexuses and many of their drivers (often libs). Subaru’s are even more lib.
I drive a Ford/LM product myself. Japanese? I would take a Honda over Toyo any day but this is all BS.
If Toyota’s had this major problem - they would be crashing all over the USA and in foreign countries.
That's his story and he's sticking to it. Nervy bastard, imho. He'll probably lawyer up and try to collect off Toyota as well. I hope the judge throws his sorry kister in the hoosegow for a nice long sociable stretch.
Reminds me of the old joke about the “Rolls-Canardly”:
Rolls down one hill —’canardly’ get up the next.
Sounds fishy... But... Why don’t people just put the car into neutral... Have automatic transmissions made us that dumb?
The Prius has an electronic transmission. From what I read about it last night, it seems the ‘gear selector’ simply tells the computer what you want. The computer then applies an electrical charge to the transmission to make it happen.
I had never heard of such a thing, but it seems plausible that on a Prius, the computer might decide you didn’t really want neutral, and not give it to you.
I intitally thought that these people were just too dumb to turn off the engine, put the car in neutral or use the brake or e-brakes. Since then I have heard of this happening to a friend of a friend and he did all those things and they didnt work.
PUT. IT. IN. NEUTRAL. YOU. IDIOT.
Fishy story. Never once did the driver nor the police attempt to put the car in neutral.
The gear knob on a Prius isn’t attached to the transmission. It is simply an input to the computer. Freaky!
My guess this is a Rahm set up. the message to Toyota is - put UAW workers in your American plants or we will have one of these stories a week and then twice a week and so on.
Many Toyo owners are lib AH’s so they could harm their business fairly quickly. It is BS.
It save gas by killing the driver.
And not one of these people knows how to shift into neutral.
“The Prius has an electronic transmission. From what I read about it last night, it seems the ‘gear selector’ simply tells the computer what you want. The computer then applies an electrical charge to the transmission to make it happen.”
Its not just the Prius but many Toyotas. Its fly by wire, where the gear shift isnt physically connected to the gearbox anymore. Same may apply to the brake and ignition. I think you are just pushing buttons that suddenly no longer respond.
He’s a Prius owner. He was really only going 30 but it felt like 90.
You should always be able to shift into neutral. I believe that modern ignition switches cannot lock the steering wheel with the car in drive or reverse. However, there is a switch position which kills the ignition but leaves the steering wheel free.
Step 1: Throw the car into neutral.
Step 2: Kill the ignition.
Step 3: Coast to the side of the road or other safe position.
Step 4: Shut down completely, remove key.
ITS. FLY. BY. WIRE. FRIEND.
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