[Mrluvaluva]

Toyota's safety record has taken another hammering after police were involved in a dramatic high-speed pursuit of a driver whose car accelerator got stuck at 94mph.

Youtube video

James Sikes, 61, was overtaking another vehicle when he discovered he could not slow down his 2008 Toyota Prius while travelling on a motorway in San Diego.

Despite pressing hard on the brake pedal, the car kept accelerating.

"I pushed the gas pedal to pass a car and it did something kind of funny... it jumped and it just stuck there," Mr Sikes said.

"As it was going, I was trying the brakes... it wasn't stopping, it wasn't doing anything and it just kept speeding up."

As Mr Sikes hurtled along the motorway, he called 911 and a highway patrol officer was dispatched.

After pulling alongside the Prius, the trooper used a loudspeaker to tell Mr Sikes to use the emergency and regular brakes.

Once the Prius slowed to around 50mph, Mr Sikes was able to turn off the engine and the car rolled to a stop with the trooper's car in front of it.

A California Highway Patrol spokesman said police had no reason to doubt Mr Sikes' account, based on officers' own observations and evidence of heavy brake use.

A Toyota spokeswoman said the car had been taken to a company dealership in California where investigators were trying to find out the cause of the incident.

Mr Sikes claimed he had received a recall notice to take his car into a Toyota dealership, but when he did he was told that his car was not on recall lists.

The incident has raised new questions about the Japanese carmaker's string of recent recalls that have damaged its reputation and sales.

Toyota has recalled more than 8 million vehicles worldwide because of accelerator and braking problems in several of its models.

In the US, the sudden acceleration of Toyota vehicles has been linked to at least five deaths since 2007.

Authorities are also investigating 47 other suspected Toyota crash deaths over the past decade.

Last night's incident occurred near the scene of a similar incident in August last year involving a Lexus sedan, killing the driver - an off-duty highway patrol officer.

It played a major factor in renewing US government scrutiny of unintended acceleration complaints leading to Toyota's huge recall.


SKY