So what's really causing unintended acceleration? Find the cause, prove it and get rich. As in a million dollars. Edmunds.com is running the contest. Details here.
The one on the right is the gas pedal. The one on the left is the brake pedal. The chief of the Harrison, New York Police Department says, yep...the 55 year old woman who crashed her Toyota Prius hybrid into a stone wall two weeks ago...the one he said couldn't have been driver error at the time.....was, well, driver error, the most common cause of fully investigated unintended acceleration incidents.
Captain Anthony Marracccini says his department's investigation confirms what Toyota and the NHTSA's found...that the throttle was wide-open at the time of impact...with no sign of any application of the brake.
AP story via The Detroit News here. Conversations among Prius drivers on the PriusChat forums.
But instead of saying..."yeah...what the feds say....", the Harrison PD plans to announce their own findings this afternoon. It should be interesting, given that the police chief started by ruling out driver error at the scene two weeks ago, then amended his position to a definite maybe last week, before the NHTSA announced the results of its investigation.
NHTSA says the Toyota Prius driven into a wall by a 55 year old woman in Harrison, New York last week did not experience sudden acceleration. Investigators say their technical analysis of the vehicle show the throttle was open and no brakes were being applied.
The 7-page incident report (which does confirm that Sikes "appeared to be pumping the brakes") refuses to draw conclusions as to whether what Sikes told the CHP was true or not. CHP spokesman Brian Pennings says the agency is not trying to settle the debate and has "no evidence...that will absolutely disprove Mr. Sikes' statement".
there's another problem: Cars stopping when they shouldn't.
Toyota says it's trying to figure out how to fix computer flaws in more than a million 2005 through 2007 Corolla and Matrix models that can cause the cars to stall. NHTSA has 76 complaints from owners. Toyota says it does not pose "an unreasonable risk...to safety."
The company and federal investigators will be going over that car using the same methods as they did in San Diego...with a critical eye on how many times the driver hit the brakes and the accelerator.
The Detroit Free Press is reporting that NHTSA is looking into the possiblity that Toyota's sudden acceleration issues (assuming they have any apart from people standing on the wrong pedal) might be linked to cosmic rays.
Full article and a link to the .pdf of the anonymous tip to the Feds from "A concerned scientist" (really) here.
After a week of media hyperventilation, it's nice to see solid reporting that prioritizes the salient facts.
NBC Nightly News' coverage of Monday's Toyota news conference played up the most telling fact...that instead of braking as hard as he could, the evidence suggests Jim Sikes may have been riding the brakes on his Prius...off and on the gas and brakes as much as 250 times during his alleged unintended acceleration incident a week ago.
And, they actually interviewed someone who knows something about cars and drivers...former Car and Driver editor-in-chief Csaba Csere.
"It would seem that the account of the driver is inconsistent with the technical investigation."
That's Toyota's single-sentence sum-up of the teardown of Jim Sikes' car. Want to see them say it...and what happens to a speeding Prius when you do one of the several things that will stop it?
Just click play.
And don't think Toyota's going to go quietly. They dropped the nugget that the evidence suggests Sikes was on and off the brakes and gas 250 times during his wild ride...in contrast to his statement to police that he was standing on the brake.
And the news release has this solid punch of a sentence:
These findings suggest that there should be further examination of Mr. Sikes account of the events of March 8.
Read the complete news release from today's news conference here.
FOXNews.com is the latest media outlet to think things might be worth a deeper look in the James Sikes "unintended acceleration" Prius incident. They've interviewed the buyer of one of Sikes' former homes, who says there were undisclosed problems that cost him $20,000 to fix. He tried suing, but says Sikes filed for bankruptcy in the process.
Nice to have a network (or at least a part of one) join the story in progress.
Once upon a time in American media, the thing you had to worry about most was the big dogs...ABC, CBS, NBC. Well-financed and staffed with no-nonsense World War II vets who didn't take crap from anybody...least of all somebody they were demanding straight answers from.
And the local FOX affiliate in Sacramento followed through last night...talking with Sikes' former neighbors in the Central California Community of Atwater. None of whom had anything nice to say about Sikes. But the bonus was the follow-up story...in which a TV reporter stops a speeding Prius four different ways in just 90 seconds...something Sikes couldn't do for 20 minutes.
There's bound to be more. It's never too late for the big dogs of (traditional) journalism to get off the porch. And Lord knows, this is the kind of story that begs for some real fact-checking. But if they choose not to, it's nice to know new media can more than pick up the slack.
KTXL, Channel 40, the FOX affiliate in Sacramento, picks up where the ABC station in San Diego left off...advancing the story by interviewing former neighbors in Atwater, a Central California town where Sikes lived in the early '00s.
And, in about a minute and a half, a FOX reporter does what Sikes couldn't do for 20 minutes...stop a speeding Prius four different ways.
And about that Corvette Owners Club of San Diego jacket Sikes wore on Monday? The club tells KTXL he's a former member...and they're "embarrassed that he couldn't stop his car".
Sikes is swimming upstream in terms of public opinion, at least on the KTXL website. The "do you believe him?" poll here.
If the language in the e-mail to Los Jalops was intended to chill, it hasn't worked so far. Six and a half hours after the post with the e-mail, Jalopnik goes on the record with documentation to back up what had been claimed in comments to a post on The Truth About Cars...that when Jim's not selling real estate (or maybe when he is), he's running an adult swingers' website, which, according to Jalopnik, "advertises that it supports "The Adult lifestyle, wife swapping, hook-up, Swinger clubs, adult social club, booty call, Friends with Benefits, NASCA" with webchats, message boards and other services".
I can hear the voice mail prompts: "For real estate, press one. For booty call......."
Nah. Too easy. Not going there.
But wait! There's more!
Jalopnik also says the bankruptcy papers indicate his insurance paid $7,400 for the theft of clothes, a saxophone and other items from his car last April.
One of the best things a victim or witness can say is that they have nothing to gain (especially in terms of money) from their story. Having an impeccable record of truth-telling is also really helpful.
Let's start with the truth-telling part. Watch this report from KGTV. Wait for the reporter to do the recap of the incident, or scroll in to 1:14.
And then there's money. KGTV reports Sikes is was (Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2008) more than a quarter-million dollars under water. Significant: They interview a social psychologist/criminologist. Watch the story here.
The picture above is of San Diego "runaway Prius" driver Jim Sikes talking to a TV news reporter Monday afternoon, following a news conference about his alleged unintended acceleration incident.
That's him with his back to you....wearing a "Corvette Owners Club of San Diego" jacket.
To borrow a phrase from at least two other automotive blogs: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
IF Sikes belongs to the Corvette Owners Club of San Diego (I'm waiting on a response to my request for confirmation by the club), he's in for some serious ribbing at the next meeting.
Meantime, people claiming to know Jim Sikes are starting to bubble up in the most interesting places and leaving comments. Like here. And definitely here.
And before you think that Prius drivers are all car-haters who can't drive, the Prius Chat boards are really worth a read. There are two threads on Mr. Sikes' wild ride, here and here.
This is it...the entire 24-minute uncut 911 tape from San Diego County real estate agent Jim Sikes, who says his Prius accelerated unintentionally on I-8 eastbound Monday afternoon.
Even more so than the final 3 minutes released yesterday, this tape shows just how sharp the 911 dispatcher was and calls further into question Sikes' actions.
You only need to listen for the first three and a half minutes to hear the telling question and lack of an answer from Sikes:
911: "Is there a way you can put the car in neutral, sir?"
Sikes: "No."
911: "No? Have you tried to put it in neutral?"
Sikes: "I'm trying to control the car."
911: "Okay. Have you tried to put the car in neutral?"
Sikes: "No."
911: "Can you try that?"
Sikes: (no response)
911: "Sir?"
Sikes: (no response)
911: "Can you try to put the vehicle in neutral?"
Sikes: (no response)
911: "Sir?"
Sikes: (no response)
911: "Jim!"
Sikes: (no response)
911: "Jim."
Sikes: (no response)
911: "Jim."
Sikes: (unintelligible)
911: "Jim."
Sikes: (no response)
911: "Jim, listen to me. We have officers on the way, I'm trying to get a hold of the helicopter. I need you to answer some questions for me."
Sikes: (no response)
911: "Sir, can you hear me?"
And so on.
As we reported yesterday, the 911 dispatcher gave Sikes all the right things to do...all the things that finally caused the car to stop when a CHP officer told him to do them over a PA system...20 minutes later.
In short, this could have been a 3-minute incident. But Sikes didn't do what he was told. And we don't have to interpret the 911 tape to arrive at that conclusion, either.
Sikes gave an interview to East County Magazine Monday night in which he says he didn't shift into neutral because he was afraid he "would be hit by another car if his car halted too suddenly."
So you're jamming on the brakes as hard as you can, ripping the lining off, but you think that dropping it into neutral might cause more rapid deceleration?
And your objective was to stop?
By the way, at 84 miles per hour, Sikes tells East County Magazine other cars "were passing me left and right".
Investigators will determine if something was wrong with Sikes' Prius. But it's very clear from Sikes' own words, both during and after the incident, that his actions could have kept this from being a major deal.
The final 3-plus minutes of Monday's "Runaway Prius" (quotes intentional) incident near San Diego:
Smart 911 dispatcher...asks James Sikes if the car is in cruise control.
No answer.
Tells him to hold the ignition button down for 3 seconds.
No answer.
Repeats the instruction.
No answer.
The CHP says the 911 call totalled 23 minutes...and the dispatcher repeatedly asked Sikes if he'd tried putting the car in neutral....and pleads with him to do so. The one answer she got:
"I'm trying to control the car."
Only when a CHP cruiser arrives on the scene...giving him the same instructions over the PA system (and an eyewitness), does he seem to do it.
