Runaway Toyotas: Listen to the 911 Tape in 94 MPH San Diego Incident

March 10, 2010 — -- The California Highway Patrol has released the 911 tape of a San Diego driver whose 2008 Toyota Prius began accelerating uncontrollably on Interstate 8 Monday. The 25-minute tape records a dispatcher trying to help James Sikes control his car as it revs over 90 miles per hour – and then the sound of sirens as a patrol car catches up to Sikes and helps him bring the car to a stop.

The release of the tape Tueday came as a Prius driver in New York reported her own "sudden acceleration" incident that ended in a non-fatal crash.

Sikes, 61, was driving east on Interstate 8 near Lake Jennings Park Road outside San Diego at 1:30 p.m. when he tried to pass a slower car, according to the California Highway Patrol's account of the incident. Sikes then noticed that the Prius seemed to be accelerating on its own.

Sikes attempted to bring the car under control himself, and then called 911.

The 911 tape starts with the operator asking Sikes if he has an emergency. "My car won't slow down," answers Sikes. After telling the operator where he is and what kind of car he's operating, he again tells the operator, "My accelerator is stuck. Yeah, I pulled it back, I tried pulling it back, pulling it back, but it's stuck."

LISTEN TO A SHORTER VERSION OF THE 911 TAPE HERE

As Sikes would later explain during a press conference, he held on to his steering wheel and tried to pull the accelerator pedal back with his right hand. "I thought it was maybe stuck," he said. "Somehow the pedal was stuck. But it wasn't stuck on anything that was visible."

The Prius had reached more than 80 miles per hour when the operator told Sikes she was notifying a highway patrol officer. Sikes can then be heard saying, "A truck" and "S__t." Sikes said later that he had to avoid several big rigs during the incident.

The operator asks Sikes to check his floor mats and to try to put the car into neutral, and to press down on the brakes for five seconds. Sikes, who has sounded fairly calm, throughout the incident, starts to moan as various measures fail.

Marraccini said his department checked to see if the floor mat might have caused the accident. "From our investigation, it doesn't appear the floor mat was the cause," he said. The floor mat was secured to the car floor with the factory-issued hook and also tied to the seat base with a plastic tie. Marraccini said he believed it had been taken to a Toyota dealership to be serviced.

Like the 2008 Prius, the 2005 Prius is covered by the floor mat recall, but not the gas pedal recall.

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