;)
Last week the media was all over the dramatic story of a California man calling 911 from his Prius, reporting that his car had a stuck throttle and was running at 90+ mph on the freeway. TV stations played the dramatic footage of his car parked behind a CHP Patrol Car, and the 911 audio of him calling the police reporting the incident. From the beginning this story seemed really odd to me. James Sikes, the guy who was driving the prius, claimed he did not want to put the car into neutral because he was afraid it might “flip” the car. The other issue- if you drive a car at freeways speeds and hold your foot on the brakes with some level of force you will end up with all four wheels smoking, if not on fire from the resulting heat. No sign of it on his car. I drive a hybrid myself, the braking system is designed to recharge the battery of the electric drive system, if you hold it down with the engine (even at full throttle) it slows down the car.
Now that investigators have had time to inspect the car it sounds like they are not able to find any kind of problem or issue that would back up Sikes’s story. The brakes were inspected and show some wear, but not the severe damage you would expect from extended high speeds with continuous braking.
This dude has had his 15 minutes, looks to me like the media got played by his stunt. Made for a dramatic story though.
© 2010, Bill Gillam. All rights reserved.