Why the "Out of Control" Prius Driver Is Full of It

It's not looking good for Sikes:

APNewsBreak: Probe questions runaway Prius story - Yahoo! News

 

I tested this myself today, and attempted to reach the pedal. I'm 5'8 140lb, and I could grab the pedal when it's up, but when it's pressed down, I can only brush it with my fingers. My seat is all the way back, and the steering wheel is at the lowest setting. If it did actually get stuck, I could probably catch an edge with my food and wedge it out.

 

Or is it?

 

Rear brakes having 1/2 mm left should still be able to stop the car even with no front brakes. I assume they test drove the car with the original brakes.

 

The AP article also said: "The brakes on the Prius also did not show wear consistent with having been applied at full force at high speeds for a long period, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, citing three people familiar with the probe, whom it did not name. The newspaper said the brakes may have been applied intermittently."

The brake pads might have been spent, but it sounds like the front disc rotors show no sign of prolonged forceful brake application such as heat-induced rotor warping or heavy scoring.

So what would account for the unusual brake pad wear when rotors show little or no abuse?

 

Postulating without any info is pointless (tho entertaining). I'll just wait for more investigation results myself.

- D

 

When the engine mount broke on my 1969 Ford Falcon jamming the mechanical linkage throttle at full open when I was only 19 years old I knew to push the clutch to the floor and turn off the engine. Why can't people work out that when the throttle jams open on a modern car you disengage the transmission and switch off the engine?
I seriously don't get it.

Oh hell, I just realised, throttles have been jamming open since at least 1969!!

 

Yep, if you drive different cars all the time it takes a while to look around the dash and find everything. If you drive a Prius once a week this should be easy. Many times over the years I have had to put a car in neutral while it was moving.

Also one of the driver magazines took 20 or more cars and locked the gas pedal down and all including a Mustang with a Shelby engine could be stopped with the brakes alone and a full open throttle.

BTW/My Prius is a dog at best and can't accelerate past a truck going up a hill. I do not see how you could put your foot on the brake and apply it and be able to do anything but stop.

 

I just saw this morning on CNN Headline News the information concerning the report, that they were not able to replicate the accelerator sticking. Now that it has hit the mainstream, we'll see if this helps cut down on the imitators. At least there has been a good response from Toyota here and working jointly with the NHTSA, so most people should be satisfied, unless nothing on earth was going to change their minds.

 

Jalopnik brings down the great hammer of justice again. They have the preliminary results of the NHTSA/Toyota investigation of Sikes' car. Full scans of the actual memo can be seen on their article.

Via: Jalopnik - This Memo Proves The Runaway Prius Was A Hoax

So Mr. Sikes... would you like your crow baked, boiled, or deep fried? You're about to be eating a lot of it, liar.

 

But before that he should be taken to the Tower and royally racked so that the truth as to what really happened is obtained!

Failing that, off with his head!

(Been reading a lot of Tudor history lately! )

 

Agreed, that memo is also NOT from NHTSA or Toyota and is pretty much useless in my opinion. Still waiting for some expert analysis documentation.

- D

 

True, but the forensic evidence discussed in the report showed that it was "not feasibly possible, both electronically and mechanically, that his gas pedal was stuck to the floor and he was slamming on his brake at the same time". The evidence and the engineering analysis seemed to be done very well and everything makes engineering sense to me.

Since the brakes were very worn, it is likely that Mr. Sikes used the brakes moderately or intermittently over an extended period of time, not enough to overpower the engine, but just enough to wear them down at an excessive rate. This would explain why he could only achieve 94mph max, rather than the well-documented real max speed of 108mph. Granted, he was going uphill much of the time, but I've driven that stretch of highway, and there are several flat stretches and downhill stretches. Either the brakes worked, or they didn't work at all. When you stomp on the brakes, there's no middle ground. According to Mr. Sikes, they didn't work. In the investigation, they worked just fine.

I understand that braking on the Prius is a complex system, with electrical and hydraulic-mechanical aspects. Even if the electrical aspect of braking malfunctioned, the mechanical brakes would still work to stop the car. The brakes proved to be fully functional during the inspection. So, this seems to me to be proof that Mr. Sikes lied about slamming on the brakes with full force. To further support this theory, everyone knows that Mr. Sikes was eventually able to easily stop the car by himself with "a little encouragement" from the CHP trooper.

There's all sorts of other information they could investigate to determine the validity of his story. For example, the traffic conditions. He stated he was passing cars "left and right" and was afraid to get rear-ended if he coasted in neutral. If there was that much traffic, then the odds are extremely likely that he would have not been able to travel 30 miles and not hit another car or run off the road. This part of his story is very suspicious. I have driven that stretch of East-bound highway at that time of day, and there is usually very little traffic, contrary to what he stated on the 911 recording. They could prove it with traffic speed records from that date/time, and by observations from other witnesses.

How much and what kind of "proof" do you need? There is tons of evidence that Mr. Sikes ordeal was a complete hoax. The evidence just isn't as concrete as the murderer caught in the act of murder on video camera.

 

True, it was from a witness from the US congressman's office. I read it and it appears to be good documentation of everything the investigators did and concluded. I would be shocked if the final report written by the investigators came to different conclusions. That would be extremely embarrassing for the congressman. The report was sufficiently written in technical terms to suggest that the author was qualified to understand and accurately report on the investigation.

 

Main stream media is now getting around to report what people here with any common sense suspected when they heard the details of the Sikes story:

Tests of Sikes' Prius cast doubt on his account of out-of-control acceleration - latimes.com

Tests of Sikes' Prius cast doubt on his account of out-of-control acceleration

The brake-override system kicked in, shutting off the engine, when federal investigators pressed hard on the brake and gas pedals at the same time, according to a draft of a congressional memo.

A federal probe into a Toyota Prius that took a wild ride on a San Diego County freeway last week is casting doubt on the driver's account of uncontrollable acceleration, a spokesman for a Southern California congressman said Sunday.

. . . Sikes said the car kept speeding while he was "laying on the brakes" during the March 8 ride.
But when investigators from the federal government and Toyota Motor Corp. who tested Sikes' car late last week pressed hard on the brake pedal and the accelerator at the same time, the Prius' brake-override system kicked in, shutting off the engine, according to a draft of a congressional memo obtained by The Times.

The tests of Sikes' Prius create concerns about "the veracity of the sequence of events that has been reported by Mr. Sikes," said Kurt Bardella, a spokesman for Issa.
Mike Michels, a Toyota spokesman, declined to comment on any findings from the examination of Sikes' vehicle. But he said the Prius' brake override was designed to operate in the scenario Sikes described.
"In essence, if the accelerator pedal was depressed for any reason, whether it was stuck or your foot was on it, and you apply the brakes with moderate to heavy force, it would shut down the engine," Michels said. "Knowing what we know about how the vehicle is designed and reading the accounts in the media of the incident in San Diego, we're puzzled."

[Toyota: you are too polite. ]

 

It's pretty clear at this point that the story as he described it is very doubtful. His shady background only makes him less believable.
We now have to wait for concrete evidence proving that any statements he made about what happened are not true.
Short of that, he will need to confess it was a hoax to prove anything.

 

I think it would have been appropriate to follow the advice in the last statement in this article -

"Again, we don't have any technical details yet, so this post could be totally premature. We'll hopefully know more soon".

I don't believe we should judge this individual because he did not respond in the way we think he should have. None of us know whether he is "full of it" at this point and would not want this same rush to judgment if we found ourselves in this same situation.

 

It is a shame that the majority of respondents to this thread don't share your belief.

 

Years ago I rear-ended someone who stopped for an ambulance and I was clearly at fault. Imagine my surprise when a couple of witnesses immediately came to me in my so-called defense. One even offered her contact information to the fire department, who in turn gave it to me. Those of you defending Sikes sound exactly like them.