Prius Fixed Under Recall Still Speeds Out of Control

James Sikes was driving his 2008 Toyota Prius last week when unintended acceleration hit. Before calling 911, he reached down to pull up his stuck accelerator pedal, but it didn't move.

"My car can't slow down," he began when a California Highway Patrol dispatcher answered his call.

Dispatcher Leighann Parks, repeatedly told him to throw the car into neutral but got no answers, later found out he had to set the phone on the seat next to him in order to apply both hands to the wheel.

Finally, Todd Neibert, the CHP officer caught up with him and gave instructions to Sikes over a loudspeaker as they went east on mountainous Interstate 8 in San Diego County Monday afternoon, stating he smelled burning brakes when he caught up with the Prius.

Neibert told Sikes to shift into neutral but the driver shook his head no, later telling reporters he was afraid his car would flip. Sikes did, however apply his brake; straightening his body and lifting off the seat in order to press it down fully and applied the emergency brake.

Both cars maneuvered around two trucks going uphill to a clear, open road giving Neibert about 15 miles to stop the Prius before a steep downgrade and even considered spike strips to puncture the tires as a last resort.

The wild ride lasted 23 minutes, and finally, the Prius rolled to a stop.

Ironically, James Sikes' Prius was one of the vehicles serviced in the recall for floor mats.

Toyota has recalled around 8.5 million vehicles worldwide (over 6 million in the U.S. alone) due to acceleration problems in multiple models and for braking issues in the Prius. Regulators link 52 deaths to crashes caused by accelerator problems. And there are over 60 more reports of sudden acceleration in cars "fixed" under the recall.

Toyota Has Repaired 500,000 Vehicles

Toyota Motor Co. has repaired around 500,000 of the 2.3 million vehicles of their more recent recall over a sticky gas pedal causing unintended acceleration.

Last fall, Toyota recalled millions of vehicles for floor mats that can pin down a car's gas pedal. Sales sank last month after the company stopped selling eight of its most popular models to fix a separate defect that can make the gas pedal stick. But surprisingly enough, general manager of the U.S. division, Bob Carter said Toyota doesn't appear to be losing any market share this month due to the recall.

But the U.S. sales chief James Lentz, today said the massive recall may "not totally" solve frightening problems of sudden, unintended acceleration. And that the changes Toyota is making probably aren't the end of the story.

House members listened to Lentz today and to a woman's near death experience when her vehicle surged to 100 MPH. The government has received complaints of 34 deaths linked to sudden acceleration of Toyota vehicles since 2000.

Toyota president Akio Toyoda is prepared to confront angry U.S. lawmakers tomorrow. "I will do everything in my power to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again," Toyoda will tell the House Government Oversight Committee. "My name is on every car. You have my personal commitment that Toyota will work vigorously and unceasingly to restore the trust of our customers."

Toyota plans to win back consumer confidence once repairs have been completed. Carter declined to unveil the possiblities, but dealers have admitted to a potential new incentive program or enhanced warranty protection.

Not So Perfect Prius

This is the story of Bobette Riner, excited new Prius owner who's shiny new prized possession took a literal turn for the worst.

Bobette bought her brand-new Prius last year. She says "I felt so smug for a while. Especially being in Houston." At 2000 she could count her gas fill-ups on one hand. It was a dream. But things changed on a rainy night last fall, after just a few months of owning her new toy. She was on the way to a sales meeting coasting at 60MPH but suddenly her car started hydroplaning out of control. She looked at the speedometer and realized the speed had shot up to 84 MPH. She realized she wasn't hydroplaning; the vehicle had accelerated on its own. She hit the brakes but they were dead. Luckily the Prius shut down, lit up with warning lights leaving Bobette to fight a stiff steering wheel across four lanes of traffic and down the exit ramp.

In August 2006, Prius owner Elizabeth was driving toward Denver to catch an early-morning flight. As she was nearing the small town of Lawson, she hit the brakes to slow down but as soon as she let her foot off the pedal, the Prius took off. The car wouldn't slow down "no matter how hard I pressed on the brake," Elizabeth said. So she attempted to slam down the emergency brake with her left foot to no avail. The brakes spewed blue smoke from the rear of the vehicle. Elizabeth glanced down to read the speedometer. She was going 90 MPH headed straight for a car in the slow lane. With no other option, she whipped the car around along the shoulder of Interstate 70 taking the Lawson exit, running a stop sign and passing a few pedestrians along the way. She steered into a grassy field when the feeder cut to the left.

"She said she felt like the pilot of a plane that was trying to crash-land," her husband Ted says. "So she was looking for a place to crash the car, and that was one of the things that were really tough: She though she was going to die and had enough time to think about it."
The car sped along through a wooded area, clipped a weather monitoring shed, flipped, and landed in a river. She survived but her legs and back were severely wounded and to this day she is still hobbled, despite a year of physical therapy. Scar tissue on her intestines requires her to drink MiraLAX for the rest of her life to ease stomach pains.

Toyota spokesman Bill Kwong stated "You get these customers that say, 'I stood on the brake with all my might and the car just kept on accelerating.' They're not stepping on the brake. People are under stress right now, people have so much on their minds. With pagers and cell phones and IM, people are so busy with kids and family and boyfriends and girlfriends. So you're driving along and the next thing you know you're two miles down the road and you don't remember driving, because you're thinking about something else."

Toyota has also claimed a faulty floor mat as the cause of unexpected acceleration and in many cases denies anything is wrong with the vehicle itself. It seems they're already on the defense, but the "Prions" (Prius owners) aren't looking to sue, they just want an explanation! Ted James, who's Prius ended up in a river, rebuts "We're not the kind of people to go through a lawsuit, and it's not in our nature. Our concern was that no one else got hurt, that Toyota own up to its problem."

Besides that, faulty floor mats couldn't be the problem. Take the case of a Houston Prion who left his car parked and running in front of his garage door while he walked toward his house. The Prius suddenly surged forward, through his garage door, slamming into his Nissan Altima. Markus, the mechanic who worked on the vehicle said, "He was lucky that the Altima was parked there, because his backyard is not too long, and the neighbors had a family gathering. It would've ran right into all those people, and he was a little shook up over the situation."

Bobette isn't the only one with a frightening run in with her Prius. Read the full article from Seattle Weekly. Or read the complaints from Consumer Affairs.