9-1-1 Audio from James Stikes, 61, when the runaway Toyota Prius is reported to have reached 94 mph, and led to a California Highway Patrol officer helping Sikes slow down and stop his vehicle.
Overall, Toyota has recalled more than 8 million cars and trucks worldwide because gas pedals and floor mats that can cause the accelerator to become stuck. But judging from the comments on YouTube, many people think the action of James Stikes was staged.
Monday, Stikes called 911 to report his Prius was accelerating out of his control. Sikes was driving eastbound on Interstate 8 near Lake Jennings Park Road at 1:30 p.m. Monday when he tried to pass a slower car. Sikes then noticed that the Prius seemed to be accelerating on its own. Sikes reported he attempted to bring the car under control himself, then called 911 when the vehicle hit speeds over 90 miles per hour. Sikes claims his vehicle reached 94 mph.
A California Highway patrol car caught up to Sikes when he was east of Kitchen Creek Road — a distance of over 20 miles from the location where the incident began. CHP officer Todd Neibert approached alongside the Prius and gave Sikes instructions over the police car’s public address system.
After instructions from officer Neibert, Sikes used his brakes and his emergency brake to slow the car down. Sikes said the car slowed to 55. After several attempts to shut off the car by using the ENGINE START STOP button, he was successful. The officer could smell the brakes, and Sikes remembers looking out the window of the car while he was looking at the police car and standing on his own brake pedal.
The Prius will be investigated by federal officials, and Toyota will also investigate the Prius. Toyota officials also want to interview Sikes.
Toyota Instructional Video: Stopping Procedure for sticking accelerator pedal.
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Map of California Interstate 8 near Kitchen Creek Road and Mission Bay California — east of San Diego, California, near Cleveland National Forest.
See also …
Toyota Recall Videos – Stopping Procedure
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100% staged. What a moron!
i searched “fake james stikes toyota” because i think this is fake as hell.
how interesting in California he just happens to be on a open highway where he can go 20 minutes at 80 mph. How interesting it is that a grown man thinks shifting the gears into neutral will make the car “flip.” And, is it just me, but could he not turn the engine off anytime in 20 minutes? This smells worse than his brakes. Seems fake as hell to me. Either way this guy is a dope, no doubt.
This is a scam! The first thing this guy did was set up an interview with a TV station. Anyone who has had a “near death” experience wants to be comforted by their family and friends. Second of all, he said he reached down and couldn’t move the pedal, I would like everyone reading this to go to their car and sit in the drivers sear and act like your driving, Wouldn’t the steering wheel get in your way? I’m not able to do it. Next point, people talk about the high revs damaging the engine when putting the car in neutral, well in this case it’s you die or you blow a motor..bye bye motor! duh. I would like some of the other drivers who where on that road at that time to speak up and tell me what he was doing, did he look scarred or did he look determined. This is a well planned out scam to profit from the tragic death of the officer and the family. God bless that family.
Video: Toyota demonstrates safe hybrid vehicle stopping techniques
03/12/2010, By Mark Kleis
http://www.leftlanenews.com/video-toyota-demonstrates-safe-hybrid-vehicle-stopping-techniques.html
Toyota now has produced a high quality video that clearly demonstrates how to stop any Toyota hybrid vehicle in the event of unintended acceleration, following their distribution of a low budget video, apparently created by a Toyota car salesman earlier this week.
This new video demonstrates how a Toyota hybrid – any model – should function under normal conditions if the vehicle is accelerating out of control.
This video demonstrates that the recent incident in San Diego was either the result of abnormal function of the vehicle’s computer, or complete operator error on the part of the driver, James Sikes.
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Haven’t found that software glitch, Toyota? Keep trying
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-oew-cummings12-2010mar12,0,2595172.story
David M. Cummings, executive vice president of the Santa Barbara-based Kelly Technology Group, spent nine years as a consultant for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he worked on the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft.
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Washington Post
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/10/AR2010031003705.html?sub=AR
Playing the blame game with runaway Toyotas
Thursday, March 11, 2010 A20
Frank Ahrens quotes an auto industry consultant who claims the problem with runaway Toyotas almost always lies with drivers who step on the wrong pedal [“Why it’s so hard for Toyota to find out what’s wrong,” Sunday Business, March 7]. I find this assertion infuriating. I know exactly where my foot was on the two occasions that my 2004 Prius accelerated out of control on the Beltway last year — firmly on the brake until the accelerator popped back up from its unnaturally depressed position. The dealership blamed “floor mats,” but I was using small carpet squares that didn’t reach the pedal.
The condescending assumption that drivers don’t know what they are talking about when they report problems like this is why I must now mentally rehearse how to put my car into neutral every time I venture out on the highway.