Runaway Prius sparks US probe

A Toyota Prius that sped out of control on a California freeway was towed to a dealership yesterday while federal and company inspectors converged on the car to determine whether a stuck gas pedal was to blame.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sent two investigators to examine the car after the incident, said Olivia Alair, a spokeswoman for the Department of Transportation, which oversees NHTSA. Toyota spokesman Brian Lyons said the automaker is sending three of its own technicians to investigate.

James Sikes, 61, of Jacumba, told authorities that the accelerator malfunctioned as he drove his Prius on Interstate 8 in San Diego County. The car reached 151kmhduring the 20 minutes before a California Highway Patrol officer helped get the Prius driver to slow down and turn off the engine.

"There's no collision, so our investigation's done," CHP Officer Brian Pennings Pennings said. "There's no crime. ... We're just glad it ended safely."

The incident comes while Toyota is fighting fears over the safety of its vehicles, which had been revered for their safety and reliability.

It was about 18km from where Sikes' Prius started speeding where a deadly crash last year sparked scrutiny into the Japanese company's vehicles.

CHP Officer Mark Saylor, his wife, her brother and the couple's daughter died after their Lexus' accelerator became trapped by a wrong-size floor mat on a freeway in La Mesa. The loan car hit a sport utility vehicle and burst into flames.

Since then, Toyota has recalled some 8.5 million vehicles worldwide - more than 6 million in the United States - because of acceleration problems in multiple models and braking issues in the Prius. Regulators have linked 52 deaths to crashes allegedly caused by accelerator problems.

On Monday, Toyota assembled a group of experts at its North American headquarters in Torrance, California, to refute studies by an Illinois professor who revved Toyota engines simply by short-circuiting the wiring. Toyota's experts say the experiments were done under conditions that would never happen on the road.

The company has blamed the issue on mechanical problems and floor mats that can wedge the gas pedal.

"It wasn't the floor mat. The floor mat we have has hooks on it," Sikes' wife, Patty, said in a telephone interview.

Patty Sikes said the family's 2008 Prius appeared to have an accelerator malfunction a few weeks ago but it was brief.

"It took off for a second, and then it just stopped. It was like a little hiccup or something," she said.

The family got a recall notice and took it to Toyota of El Cajon about two weeks ago but the dealership refused to examine the car, Patty Sikes said.

"They said it must be a mistake because we weren't on the (recall) list," she said.

The dealership declined to comment and referred requests for comment to Toyota's corporate representatives.

Toyota spokesman John Hanson confirmed that the 2008 Prius is part of Toyota's recall to address unintended acceleration due to floor mat entrapment. The recall, affecting 5.6 million vehicles, was first announced in October.