This incident has all the ingredients of it being a hoax. In America, people are willing to do crazy things just to get what they want. Remember the "Balloon Boy" incident that turned out to be a big hoax? This one has all the signs and symptoms of "Hoaxology 101", if you just think...
1. The driver - James Sikes and his wife Patty filed for bankruptcy in 2008 with a combined debt estimated at $700,000 (almost 3 quarters of a million dollars).
2. It took James Sikes approx 30 miles without doing anything aside from stepping on the brakes. Logically, any person would try anything to stop the car, but his behaviour was doubtful. I happen to own a Prius and it is much simpler than P R N D 2 1... because it is not like that in a Prius it only has R N D P (see picture below) so I know how easy it is to put the car to Neutral. The motion to put the car to Neutral is one stroke left, that's it... but James Sikes never tried it. Hmmmmm... questionable. There's a tape of the 911 call and he totally ignored the instructions to put the car to neutral. See further down on #8.
3. The CHP found out that the allegedly "stuck" gas pedal - was NOT stuck at all when they inspected the car (now that's alarming!)
4. All the mechanical engineers and other experts have found out that all systems on his Prius are working as specified.
5. Investigators have found that James Sikes has a long history of getting claims from insurance companies for properties that he claims were "stolen" from him. (What a load of crap this guy is!)
6. James Sikes has been delinquent on the car payments for his Prius (Hmmmm...!!! He can't pay, so he's finding ways to get out of debt.)
7. James Sikes sent an e-mail that he wanted Toyota to give him another vehicle in place of the Prius (Ahaaah, that's what he wanted after all???)
8. After listening to the 911 tape, it sounded like a big hoax. He was on the phone with the 911 operator for about 23 minutes. If the accelerator pedal would have been stuck for 23 minutes, the car would have easily been over 120 miles per hour... but Sikes claimed he was only running at over 90 miles an hour. He was asked by the 911 operator several times to put the car to neutral but James Sikes did not appear to have done it and pretentiously ignored the instructions of the 911 operator. If you listen closely to the conversation, it does not appear to be a call of a person in distress. All the lapses and the non-replies are indications that James Sikes was clearly thinking of something or trying to ignore and pretend not to hear the 911 operator. Caution, it is a long conversation and it is clear that James Sikes is pretending the distress.
Listen to the 911 tape here:
http://jalopnik.com/5489687/the-full-24+minutes+long-runaway-prius-911-tape (about 23 minutes into the call, you can clearly hear James Sikes faking heavy breathing...about more than 3 times... what a load of crap!!!).
Other Links:
http://jalopnik.com/5491101/did-bankrupt-runaway-prius-driver-fake-unintended-accelerationhttp://www.popcrunch.com/runaway-prius-hoax/http://www.khabrein.info/news/Runaway_Prius_hoax___Toyota_Prius_hoax_will_embolden_Toyota_in_recall_matters_1268684987/Points To Ponder:
1. The Big Three car makers General Motors, Chrysler and Ford were given bailout money from the government, Toyota is not one of them.
2. Toyota is doing well in the economic downturn, people would not be surprised if some conspiracy to pull Toyota down would be lurking on the sidelines.