Another incident of Toyota Prius due to sudden acceleration

An incident of sudden acceleration occurred on California Highway on Monday. The person’s blue Toyota Prius 2008 went out of control as its speed increased more than 90 miles per hour.

Details of Toyota Prius incident
James Sikes, a 61 year old driver, was driving on Interstate 8 near San Diego at 1:30 P.M. and tried to overtake a slower car. It was then he realized that the car was accelerating.

Till now, Toyota has recalled 8.5 million vehicles worldwide, including 6 million vehicles from U.S. and also received 52 death reports due to sudden unintended acceleration

According to the Associated Press, Sikes told in a news conference “I pushed the gas pedal to pass a car and it did something kind of funny ... it jumped and it just stuck there.”

He tried to control the car but could not do so. He immediately called 911 and asked for help.

The California Highway Patrol car officer Todd Neibert asked Sikes to immediately push the brake and parking brake, over the loudspeaker.

Brakes and a steep incline on the Freeway slowed down the car to 50 miles per hour and stopped. James told the police that the floor mat was not blocking the pedal.

An ambulance was called for Sikes as he was shivering badly. His vehicle was immediately held by California Highway Patrol and was taken to Toyota dealer in EI Cajon, California.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) appointed two investigators and Toyota appointed three technicians to examine Toyota Prius.

Unending Toyota recalls and complaints

Till now, Toyota has recalled 8.5 million vehicles worldwide, including 6 million vehicles from U.S..It has received 52 death reports due to sudden unintended acceleration.

According to Autodata Corp., from 2004 – 2009 745,000 Toyota Prius have been sold.

In November 2009, Toyota, Japanese automaker, announced that it would recall Prius cars sold from 2004 – 2009 to remove floor mats to avoid sudden acceleration. James Sikes’ car was one of the Toyota’s recalled cars due to floor mats trapping the acceleration pedal.

Sikes' made it clear that the pedal jammed and the floor mat did not obstruct the acceleration pedal. This incident occurred after Toyota, world’s largest automaker, gave presentation that the sudden unintended acceleration was not due to its electronics.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the costs for Toyota recalls on various models could result in more than $5 billion in 2010.