A California Highway Patrol police officer helped rescue a runaway Toyota Prius speeding out of control at 94 miles per hour to a safe stop after the car’s accelerator went out of control nearly killing the driver.
The driver explained that he wasn’t doing anything but the car kept speeding up and that he could smell brakes burning because he pressed the pedal so hard.
The CHP police car pulled alongside the Prius and officers told the Toyota driver over a loudspeaker to push the brake pedal to the floor and turn on the emergency brake. Additionally, the police got the car on a steep upgrade to slow it down.
After the car decelerated to 50 miles per hour, the driver shut off the engine and coasted to a halt. The police then maneuvered his car in front of the Prius as a precaution.
Toyota dispatched a field technical specialist to San Diego to investigate.
Toyota has recalled 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.
Toyota owners have complained of their vehicles speeding out of control despite efforts to slow down, sometimes resulting in deadly crashes. The government has received complaints of 34 deaths linked to sudden acceleration of Toyota vehicles since 2000.
One of the crashes killed a California police officer last year with his wife, brother in law, and the couples daughter after his Lexus accelerator got stuck,slammed into another vehicle at about 100 mph, careened off the freeway, hit an embankment, overturned and burst into flames.
If you are the owner of a defective Toyota, contact Williams Oinonen LLC LLC for a legal consultation at 404-654-0288.