Free Republic

The appropriate word here would probably be "busted." "My Prius went wild!" guy Jim Sikes apparently didn't realize his car carried the equivalent of an airliner's Black Box. Ah, well.  Live and learn, Jim.  In the Big House.

The carmaker says it failed to reproduce the stuck accelerator that a motorist says took him on a wild ride near San Diego last week.The automaker said its two days of testing failed to reproduce James Sikes' reported stuck accelerator that the driver said led to a 20-minute ride on a San Diego area freeway before he could get the car stopped with the help of the California Highway Patrol. Toyota said its investigators found the accelerator pedal to be "working normally," with no interference caused by floor mats. No diagnostic trouble codes were found by the testers in the...

Draft memo obtained by CNN: "It's feasibly not possible both electronically and mechanically that the gas pedal was stuck and that Mr. Sikes could have been slamming on the brake pedal at the same time and not have the car slow down" (Prius story debunked, 2 videos)

Independent investigative journalist, Michael Fumento, has down the yeoman's work on what appears to be the latest "Balloom Boy" hoax, Jim Sike's runaway Prius escapade on San Diego's Interstate 8. Just as a nation watched a solitary balloon supposedly containing a young boy, made all the more dramatic when mesmerized, by hushed voices by talking heads expressing their horror, again the media dominated the airwaves with an runaway Prius with 61 year old Realtor®, Jim Sikes, at the wheel and on his cell with 911 responders. Still, there were a few detecting a distinct aroma about the affair. 911 repeatedly...

Exploring an overblown media frenzy. "On the very day Toyota was making a high-profile defense of its cars, one of them was speeding out of control," said CBS News--and a vast number of other media outlets worldwide. The driver of a 2008 Toyota Prius, James Sikes, called 911 to say his accelerator was stuck, he was zooming faster than 90 miles per hour and absolutely couldn't slow down. It got far more dramatic, though. The California Highway Patrol responded and "To get the runaway car to stop, they actually had to put their patrol car in front of the Prius...

I’ve been driving Toyota Priuses since 2001. As a junior defense lawyer in the mid-90s, I litigated a number of bogus sudden acceleration cases that were brought against General Motors. So the recent kerfuffle over alleged mysterious electronic problems with the Prius and other Toyotas has certainly caught my attention beyond just throwing my floor mat in the trunk. (snip) The Los Angeles Times recently did a story detailing all of the NHTSA reports of Toyota “sudden acceleration” fatalities, and, though the Times did not mention it, the ages of the drivers involved were striking. In the 24 cases where...

The man who became the face of the Toyota gas pedal scandal this week has a troubled financial past that is leading some to question whether he was wholly truthful in his story. On Monday, James Sikes called 911 to report that he was behind the wheel of an out-of-control Toyota Prius going 94 mph on a freeway near San Diego. Twenty-three minutes later, a California Highway Patrol officer helped guide him to a stop, a rescue that was captured on videotape. Since then, it's been learned that: — Sikes filed for bankruptcy in San Diego in 2008. According to...

The man who became the face of the Toyota gas pedal scandal this week has a troubled financial past that is leading some to question whether he was wholly truthful in his story. On Monday, James Sikes called 911 to report that he was behind the wheel of an out-of-control Toyota Prius going 94 mph on a freeway near San Diego. Twenty-three minutes later, a California Highway Patrol officer helped guide him to a stop, a rescue that was captured on videotape. Since then, it's been learned that: — Sikes filed for bankruptcy in San Diego in 2008. According to...

Michael Fumento writes at Forbes.com that the out of control Toyota Prius story is likely a hoax. Prius owner James Sikes may have pulled off a scam complete with a 911 call to cops when he claimed his car's gas pedal was stuck, and he was accelerating faster than 90 miles an hour. It got far more dramatic, though. The California Highway Patrol responded and "To get the runaway car to stop, they actually had to put their patrol car in front of the Prius and step on the brakes." During over 20 harrowing minutes, according to NBC's report, Sikes...

The man who became the face of the Toyota gas pedal scandal this week has a troubled financial past that is leading some to question whether he was wholly truthful in his story. On Monday, James Sikes called 911 to report that he was behind the wheel of an out-of-control Toyota Prius going 94 mph on a freeway near San Diego. Twenty-three minutes later, a California Highway Patrol officer helped guide him to a stop, a rescue that was captured on videotape. Since then, it's been learned that: — Sikes filed for bankruptcy in San Diego in 2008. According to...

A law firm for the driver who says his Toyota Prius sped out of control in California doesn't plan to sue the Japanese automaker. The Gomez Law Firm issued a statement Thursday, saying it represents James Sikes. It was unclear why the law firm was retained; a phone message to the firm wasn't immediately returned. Sikes told authorities he was driving near San Diego on Monday when his accelerator stuck. He says the car reached 94 mph before a California Highway Patrol officer helped him slow down. The statement said Sikes hopes an investigation will identify what caused the incident

James Sikes, the San Diego runaway Toyota Prius driver, filed for bankruptcy in 2008 and now has over $700,000 in debt. According to one anonymous tipster, we're also told he hasn't been making payments on his Prius.

Auto Safety: As a Toyota Prius with a stuck accelerator races down a California freeway, no one mourns the victims of the fuel economy standards imposed by Congress. Forced into smaller cars, thousands have died. We can barely imagine the panic felt by James Sikes, 61, as his Toyota Prius accelerated uncontrollably while he drove down Interstate 8 in San Diego County. We can imagine the continuation of the grandstanding by the owners of "government motors" as they further browbeat a competitor of government-run GM and Chrysler. We do not minimize the safety issues here that need to be addressed,...

The head of the Toyota National Dealer Council today blasted the federal government for using 'taxpayer dollars' to fund incentive campaigns to lure customers away from Toyota, and accused GM of using ‘fear’ in an attempt to lure away its customers, 1200 WOAI news reports. "As an American citizen, it is tough on my part to pay tax dollars to an entity that can turn around and use those tax dollars to get my fellow American citizens to not do business with me," Paul Atkinson, who owns Atkinson Toyota in Bryan Texas, and is President of the dealer council, tells...

EL CAJON, Calif. (AP) -- A California Highway Patrol officer helped slow a runaway Toyota Prius from 94 mph to a safe stop on Monday after the car's accelerator became stuck on a San Diego County freeway, the CHP said. Prius driver James Sikes called 911 about 1:30 p.m. after accelerating to pass another vehicle on Interstate 8 near La Posta and finding that he could not control his car, the CHP said. "I pushed the gas pedal to pass a car and it did something kind of funny...

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...

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....