“I thought it was maybe stuck,” James Sikes explained to reporters yesterday. “Somehow the pedal was stuck. But it wasn’t stuck on anything that was visible.”
Sikes was driving east on Interstate 8 when he tried to pass a slower car. While going around the other car, Skies noticed that his Prius kept accelerating, seemingly of its own accord. He called 911 and asked for help.
Twenty miles away from where the incident began, California Highway Patrol Officer Todd Neibert caught up to Sikes, who was still trying to slow his car down.
“When I saw him, I could smell the brakes,” Neibert said.
Sikes said that he “was standing on the brake pedal looking out the window at him,” when Neibert began to issue instructions via his public address system.
The officer suggested a variety of remedies, including the emergency brake and turning off the car. After slowing the car to around 55 mph, Sikes was able to push the start/stop button on his Prius (the car does not have a traditional key start; it turns on and off by way of pressing and holding a start/stop button on the dashboard), shutting the car off.
Sikes slowed his car down, eventually running into the back of the officer's patrol cruiser before coming to a complete stop, although not before the car attempted to accelerate again.
Sikes was, not surprisingly, shaken by the incident.
"I won't drive that car again, period," he told reporters.
Perhaps even more frustrating, Sikes's car was not under recall for sticky accelerator pedals. The 2008 Prius was not included in that February recall for issues with accelerator pedals, though it is covered by a separate Toyota recall for floor mats.
Sikes, however, reported, “my mat was perfect. There was nothing wrong with my mat.” The pedal “stayed right where it was” during his attempts to pull it up while the car was accelerating.
He said that there were several instances during his frightening ordeal when he came close to striking other vehicles on the interstate and that he was worried he would be unable to keep his car on the road.
In a statement on Monday, Toyota addressed the incident, saying that the automaker “had dispatched a field technical specialist to San Diego to investigate the report and offer assistance.”
What To Do If You Experience Problems With Your Accelerator Pedal
| What if you experience a sticking accelerator pedal while driving? Each circumstance may vary, and drivers must use their best judgment, but Toyota recommends taking one of the following actions: |
| If you need to stop immediately, the vehicle can be controlled by stepping on the brake pedal with both feet using firm and steady pressure. Do not pump the brake pedal as it will deplete the vacuum utilized for the power brake assist. |
| Shift the transmission gear selector to the Neutral (N) position and use the brakes to make a controlled stop at the side of the road and turn off the engine. |
| If unable to put the vehicle in Neutral, turn the engine OFF. This will not cause loss of steering or braking control, but the power assist to these systems will be lost. |
| If the vehicle is equipped with an Engine Start/Stop button, firmly and steadily push the button for at least three seconds to turn off the engine. Do NOT tap the Engine Start/Stop button. |
| If the vehicle is equipped with a conventional key-ignition, turn the ignition key to the ACC position to turn off the engine. Do NOT remove the key from the ignition as this will lock the steering wheel. |
PPE SAYS: In the video the driver of the runaway car says the officer states to use his E-brake/parking brake; DO NOT! use the parking brake to try and stop a runaway vehicle.
The parking brake uses the rear wheels as a means to hold the vehicle, unless it's a truck chances are that the vehicle is a front wheel drive vehicle. Most front wheel drive vehicles will just pull the vehicle even with the rear wheels locked completely up by the parking brake because the parking brake has no affect on the drive wheels and will cause the rear wheels to skid. This WILL cause loss of control of the vehicle.
Just remain calm, turn the ignition off but only one click as not to lock the steering wheel and stop the vehicle, if by chance the engine will not shut-down, put the gear selector in (N) neutral, this WILL cause engine damage, but if faced with that situation? better an engine than YOU.
Snatched: AOL Autos
We need to go after the professulas who inflicted America-hating Trotskyite Deming Juran Japanese participative Toyotagate management on this country! "Industrial engineering" is soviet economics and "financial engineering" is soviet finance because they don't believe in free markets and try to manipulate trends instead. Bitter Gallusour impuned te intellect of GWB43. Climategate is what happens when universities become addicted on federal grants for research, so they invent catastrophes like Y2K or global warming to extort a bigger fix of money. This is a continuation of Climategate and ACORN/PIRG/ARA-gate, used to make America subservient to the professulas. If securities rules applied to federal research grants, half the professors would be in jail! The Professulas, trial lawyers and union organizers are Obama's core constituencies. Universities, libraries, museums and other public beneficiaries extort their patrons to lobby on their behalf using taxpayer resources. That's what ACORN and PIRG are about. They even encourage students to max out their loans and invest the proceeds so the school can up its total. Obama learned the trick when he worked for Don Kent at tuition-funded Arms Race Alternatives, while they denied admission to Young Americans for Freedom or even the pro-nuclear Social Democrats. Ted Markowitz used the Xerox 9700 to make fliers for the June 12th nuclear freezers, but persecuted students for smaller infractions. Look how they destroyed a supply side hero like Jeff Bell!
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