Posted on 03/10/2010 6:36:28 AM PST by justlurking
Before he called 911, James Sikes says he reached down with his hand to loosen the "stuck" accelerator on his 2008 Toyota Prius, his other hand on the steering wheel. The pedal didn't move.
"My car can't slow down," he began when a California Highway Patrol dispatcher answered his call.
[...]
During the two 911 calls, Sikes ignored many of the dispatcher's questions, saying later that he had to put his phone on the seat to keep his hands on the wheel.
Leighann Parks, a 24-year-old dispatcher, repeatedly told him to throw the car into neutral but got no answers.
"He was very emotional, you could tell on the line he was panicked," Parks told reporters outside the CHP's El Cajon office. "I could only imagine being in his shoes and being that stressed."
Neibert told Sikes after the CHP caught up with him to shift to neutral but the driver shook his head no. Sikes told reporters he didn't go into neutral because he worried the car would flip.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
dumb masses!
Head shaky
...why throw ‘er into neutral when there’s a law suit/settlement in the offing?....by calling 911 he documented his emotional distress.
Some people are just so stupid they shouldn’t be given driver’s licenses. Thought the car would flip????
“I’m a liberal and therefore smarter than the CHP or 911 dispatcher”.
Another American in search of his own “Obama Stash”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19v5Kjmc8FI&feature=player_embedded#
I had some serious questions about this entire episode. I don’t understand why anyone would pick up a cell phone and make any type of call, even to 911, if you’re stuck at 80 / 90 mph.
This whole thing stinks like week-old fish.
“Sikes told reporters he didn’t go into neutral because he worried the car would flip.”
Oh good God. They didn’t say throw it into park (even that wouldn’t have made it flip, it would have popped it into nuetral anyway). Intellegence of Prius drivers on display.
This story doesn’t pass the smell test to me.
Mighty suspicious. This is a narrow window of opportunity to get a new car and an income from a settlement. Remember, all people lie. All people are devious and jump at the chance for the “quick kill” so they don’t ever have to work again.
That would be my first inclination. Popping into neutral would cause the engine to over RPM, and potentially destroy the engine - turning the ignition off simply shuts the engine down ... something that is inherently obvious to me.
Now, did this person also stack a couple floormats on top of each other, such that the floormat entraps the pedal when it's pushed down?
What a dumbass. This, along with the first thing he did after the incident being (apparently) to run out in front of the Toyota dealership to have his picture taken makes me suspect that the guy just cranked up his cruise control and called the cops so he could make the news.
The government/media’s treatment of these cases is turning into “pile on Toyota”. I think Smugboy is trolling for a fat lawsuit.
We are all creatures of habit, and most of us have no habit of shifting into neutral, just using the brakes and accelerator. Hindsight is 20-20.
It is troubling that so many drivers are so clueless and inexperienced.
When I was about 20, I had a car where the throttle stuck. I didn’t miss a beat, threw it into neutral, came to a stop and shut the engine off. I then, drove the car with the throttle still stuck, about 3 miles to my mechanic to get it fixed.
Creation of "evidence" for the upcoming litigation.
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