What to do when your brakes fail (Or if you drive a Prius)

On Monday afternoon, Sikes was passing another car on a highway near San Diego when the Prius accelerated out of control, the highway patrol said.

Sikes called 911 about 1.30pm after accelerating to pass another vehicle on Interstate 8 near La Posta and finding that he could not control his car, the California Highway Patrol said.


For the next 20 minutes, Sikes sped 30 miles along the freeway, he said.

"I pushed the gas pedal to pass a car and it did something kind of funny," Sikes told reporters at a press conference. "It jumped and it just stuck there," said the 61 year old.

"As it was going, I was trying the brakes ... It wasn't stopping, it wasn't doing anything and it just kept speeding up" Sikes said, adding that he could smell the brakes burning he was pressing the brakes so hard.

After Sikes called the local 911 emergency service, and the highway patrol dispatched an officer who pulled alongside the Prius. The trooper used a loudspeaker to tell Sikes to push  the brake pedal to the floor and apply the emergency and regular brakes and to turn off the car's engine.

"They also got it going on a steep upgrade," said Officer Jesse Udovich. "Between those three things, they got it to slow down."

Once the Prius slowed to around 50 mph, Sikes turned off the engine of the car and coasted it  to a stop.  The officer then maneuvred his car in front of the Prius as a precautionary block, Udovich said.

Toyota owners have complained of their cars 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.

read more here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100309/bs_nm/us_toyota_california

Toyota, U.S. officials investigate runaway Prius