Runaway Prius Prompts Recall
National News
by
Jay Gray
last edited on
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Toyota has announced a recall of all 2004-to-2009 Priuses because of concerns over accelerator pedal entrapment. That decision came after a runaway Prius was slowed to a stop by a California Highway Patrol car following almost 30-minutes of high speed and high tension along a San Diego area freeway.
Driver Jim Sikes says his Prius accelerated wildly, at times racing to 90 miles an hour. "I was on the brakes pretty healthy," he said. "It wasn't stopping, It wasn't doing anything to it. It just kept speeding up," said Sikes.
Dodging traffic, Sikes made an urgent call to 911. Using the emergency brake, and ultimately the bumper of the patrol car, the Prius finally came to a stop. The questions, and controversy, over the safety of Toyota's cars and trucks is apparently still racing out of control.
"It's really starting to feed in and fuel a sense that possibly Toyota doesn't know what the situation is," says Kelley Blue Book's James Bell.
Engineers for the automaker have tried publicly to discredit Congressional testimony from Dr. David Gilbert, a Professor of Automotive Technology at Southern Illinois University, who says some of the problems could be the result of electrical issues.
Still, it's what's happening on the streets that has forced executives to recall the Prius as engineers scramble to find a fix and Toyota drivers continue to worry about when and where it could happen next. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued a statement about Monday's incident.
It reads in part: "Two investigators are flying out to California to examine the car and look for potential causes. NHTSA is reminding owners of all recalled vehicles to contact their dealers immediately if they are experiencing problems."