The Strange Saga of Sikes and His Suddenly Accelerating Prius Page 2

By John Voelcker

John Voelcker

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2008 Toyota Prius

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2008 Toyota Prius

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Gear Shift - 2008 Toyota Prius 5dr HB Touring (Natl)

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Hybrid parking spot, by Flickr user rscottjones

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Neutral = flip ??

His refusals to shift the car into neutral despite repeated requests by the emergency dispatcher makes no sense. He also later said he had been "afraid" to put the car into neutral because he was worried "the car might flip."

It's conceivably possible that an uninformed, confused, panicky driver might believe that idea, but the actions are utterly unconnected. Sikes also claimed that a patrol car put on its brakes ahead of him to slow him down, but in fact the two vehicles never touched.

Toyota: "driver's account inconsistent"

Yesterday, Toyota [NYSE:TM] added fuel to the fire around Sikes' feet by issuing a press release that highlighted "strong indications that the driver's account of the event is inconsistent with the findings of the preliminary analysis."

That's as close as a global corporation ever comes to pointing its finger, jumping up and down, and screaming, "YOU LIE!"

Sikes is standing by his account of the incident, and says his attorney will have more to say.

Not a new recall

The Sikes incident led to a widespread series of reports last week that Toyota was planning a new recall of the Prius. In fact, 2004-2009 Toyota Prius models were part of a recall announced in November to reshape the accelerator pedal.

Toyota has not yet sent out mail notifications to those Prius owners, however, because it hasn't finished designing and testing the modifications.

San Diego: lawsuit central?

Finally, we received the following sentence in a press release from a plaintiff's law firm, which we pass along without comment:

San Diego is also the host city for a March 24 legal conference on how to successfully sue Toyota over sudden acceleration.

[Detroit News; The Truth About Cars; Forbes]