Runaway Toyota Prius in California

*Breaking News* incident involving a Toyota vehicle. This incident is under investigation.

EL CAJON, California -- A California highway police officer helped slow a runaway Toyota Prius from 94 mph to a safe stop on Monday after the car's accelerator became stuck on a freeway near San Diego, authorities said.

Prius driver James Sikes said that the incident Monday occurred just two weeks after he had taken the vehicle in to an El Cajon dealership for repairs after receiving a recall notice, but he was turned away.

"I gave them my recall notice and they handed it back and said I'm not on the recall list," Sikes said.

Sikes 2008 Prius was not covered by the accelerator recall only the floor mat recall, ABC News reported. His Prius model allegedly has a different accelerator than the ones with sticky pedals. Sikes said there didnt appear to be anything wrong with his floor mat, ABC reported.

In a statement, Toyota said it has dispatched a field technical specialist to San Diego to investigate the incident.

Toyota has recalled some 8.5 million vehicles worldwide -- more than 6 million in the United States -- since last fall because of acceleration problems in multiple models and braking issues in the Prius.

On Monday, Sikes called 911 about 1:30 p.m. after accelerating to pass another vehicle on Interstate 8 near La Posta and finding that he could not control his car, the California Highway Patrol said.

"I pushed the gas pedal to pass a car and it did something kind of funny ... it jumped and it just stuck there," the 61-year-old driver said at a news conference.

"As it was going, I was trying the brakes ... it wasn't stopping, it wasn't doing anything and it just kept speeding up," Sikes said, adding he could smell the brakes burning he was pressing the pedal so hard.

A patrol car pulled alongside the Prius and officers told Sikes over a loudspeaker to push the brake pedal to the floor and apply the emergency brake.

"They also got it going on a steep upgrade," said Officer Jesse Udovich. "Between those three things, they got it to slow down."

After the car decelerated to about 50 mph, Sikes turned off the engine and coasted to a halt.

The officer then maneuvered his car in front of the Prius as a precautionary block, Udovich said.

Toyota owners have complained of their vehicles speeding out of control despite efforts to slow down, sometimes resulting in deadly crashes. The government has received complaints of 34 deaths linked to sudden acceleration of Toyota vehicles since 2000.

One of the crashes claimed the life of a CHP officer in August.

Off-duty CHP Officer Mark Saylor was killed along with his wife, her brother and the couple's daughter after their Lexus' accelerator got stuck in La Mesa.

The Toyota-manufactured loaner vehicle slammed into a sport utility vehicle at about 100 mph, careened off the freeway, hit an embankment, overturned and burst into flames.

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[who8that2]

0:10 HE SHOWS US A HYUNDAI ACCENT

[sunstarssnow]

Has anyone noticed that this guy is filming a Hyundai Accent, as I have the same car? This buffoon is not being truthful. That is not a Toyota. Notice he doesn't film the logo on the car. What a jerk!

[JonTheChron]

Your full of shit filmwave, this isnt what happened for shit.

[jonzo22]

that story sounds like bs to me! why didnt he put the car in neutral? and then apply the parking brake slowly or something? how the hell did he manage to call someone and tell them the car couldnt stop and not even think about neutral and the parking brake? or turn it off? its FAKE! and im sure theres lower gears too he could have shifted into even in a automatic!!!! hes a liar!

[Kempter1]

Also this video is shit, get off youtube. You haven't put forward any new ideologies or facts. You're just sitting there reciting shit that we don't need. Fix up, look sharp, and fuck off.

[Kempter1]

His life wasn't at risk because his car let him down. His life was at risk because he's a fucking retard.

[gvjssb2]

omg prius goes up to 95 mph????????

[kodiak410a]

Why are we looking at a Hyundai Accent? Hyundai's dont take off like that. Regardless, Toyota Prius has a function built into it's programming where even if you apply the brakes and the acceloerator pedela at the same time, the car loses power and comes to a stop. Prius also has a traditional Neutral posotion on the shifter the disengages power from the engine/electric motor hybrid drive to the wheels so even if the engine is still running, there is no power delivery to the wheels. You stop.

[kodiak410a]

Why are we looking at a Hyundai Accent? Hyundai's dont take off like that.

[pokerguy17]

It's called either shut the car off or shift into neutral, for fuck sakes people @_@

[schindlerman96]

No not because Toyota told him there was nothing wrong with his car because he was a stupid person trying to get money this story was found out to be a lie

[JonJon90245]

this story was found out to be lie