San Diego cannot seem to purge itself of scary unintended acceleration incidents.
According to the San Diego Union Tribune, a Jacumba Toyota Prius driver almost ended up crashing his car after the vehicle’s gas pedal became stuck and had to call the California Highway Patrol (CHP) for assistance. Thankfully, no catastrophic injuries came from this incident because the CHP officers were able to guide the driver to a safe speed and finally stop his runaway car.
This 2008 Toyota Prius became a runaway vehicle on San Diego roads due to unintended accelearation. (Source: Sign On San Diego)
Our firm’s Jacumba accident attorneys have been following Toyota’s unintended acceleration problem and subsequent recalls since four wrongful deaths in Santee were attributed to the Toyota liability issue last summer. Could the Prius model be infected with the same design defect?
James Sikes was traveling along Interstate-8 in his blue 2008 Prius and he decided to pass an approaching call. After he pushed the accelerator it never retracted. Sikes’ car began speeding at a dangerous rate for the next 30 miles — at one point reaching 94 mph — forcing Sikes to dial 9-1-1 for help.
CHP officers were dispatched and drove along side Sikes, giving him instructions via megaphone on how to slow his car down. Time was ticking down, however, as Sikes was approaching a steep incline in the road that could be fatal at his speed. Before that happened, the CHP officers walked Sikes through the process of going into neutral, pressing the emergency and regular brakes at the same time, and turning the engine off when the speed dropped below 50 mph.
Sikes claimed he was putting all of his weight on the brake to the point where he could smell them burning up. Toyota said that they are aware of the incident and have sent a representative out to San Diego to investigate the problem.
Recently, Toyota issued a recall over the braking system in the Prius, not on the issue of potential unintended acceleration. In fact, Sikes said that he brought in his car after receiving a notice concerning the recall, but was told by the Toyota of El Cajon dealership that he didn’t need to have his car take part in the recall.
Our car accident lawyers are concerned about another scare with a Toyota with unintended acceleration problems. What good is a car insurance policy if your car is potentially dangerous? If Toyota finds out any more information on this problem, hopefully a solution is found sooner rather than later.
If you or a loved one have been injured because of someone else’s negligence, then we urge you to contact our bilingual offices as soon as possible at 1-800-655-6585 or please click here for a FREE consultation with an experienced personal injury attorney in San Diego. We handle all cases on a contingency fee basis, which means that you owe us nothing until we recover money on your behalf.
If you own a Toyota and have more questions or need more information, contact the Toyota Customer Experience Center.
About Michael PinesMichael Pines is a former insurance company attorney who specializes in car accident injury. While he was an insurance attorney, he learned from behind the scenes on how insurance companies work and how they decided to pay injured people. Now that he works against insurance companies, Michael's inside knowledge has resulted in significant benefits to his clients injured in car accidents.
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Tags: car accident, CHP, toyota prius, Unintended Acceleration
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