Posted on 03/12/2010 9:14:38 AM PST by Chet 99
The man who became the face of the Toyota gas pedal scandal this week has a troubled financial past that is leading some to question whether he was wholly truthful in his story.
On Monday, James Sikes called 911 to report that he was behind the wheel of an out-of-control Toyota Prius going 94 mph on a freeway near San Diego. Twenty-three minutes later, a California Highway Patrol officer helped guide him to a stop, a rescue that was captured on videotape.
Since then, it's been learned that:
— Sikes filed for bankruptcy in San Diego in 2008. According to documents, he was more than $700,000 in debt and roughly five months behind in payments on his Prius;
— In 2001, Sikes filed a police report with the Merced County Sheriff's Department for $58,000 in stolen property, including jewelry, a digital video camera and equipment and $24,000 in cash;
— Sikes has hired a law firm, though it has indicated he has no plans to sue Toyota;
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I think Toyota should start a marketing campaign ...
“Just flip it! A car can’t runaway if its wheels aren’t on the ground!”
SnakeDoc
“BAD ADVICE! The key is the THROW THE CAR INTO REVERSE and PUNCH THE ACCELERATOR and YANK THE WHEEL HARD TO THE RIGHT”
Put it in reverse if you want the transmission to provide you with an enema of biblical proportions.
Right off the bat Freepers were very suspicious of this incident
Running from the Repo-man!
Behind on his payments, and right out of Obama’s Play Book, he planned to blame it on the “evil capitalistic corporation”.
In a just world, Toyota would be able to sue him for disparagement, and if he didn’t have the funds to pay, he would be sent to debtors prison.
A scam from the beginning.
I never bought this guy’s story. 911 call did not sound legit.
I give my enemas a good enema.
Because, as they say, the enema of my enema is my friend.
I'd say there's better than a 90-10 odds that he's a registered Dem! (10% chance he's a Rino!)
Could our wonderful government be in on this??
What ever happened to The Unit?
No, can't reach down to put it in neutral, that would be dangerous, might lose control.
The safe thing to do is fumble for your cell phone to make a call and blab on it for ten minutes while you're careening down the highway at 94 miles per hour and purportedly with no way to stop.
Makes perfect sense to me, that's exactly what I'd do, if it ever happens to me. /s
It was cancelled after Season 4. There was a rumor that it was going to be bought by a cable network, but I haven’t heard anything of it in a while. They play reruns some on B-level networks — UPN, etc.
SnakeDoc
Didn't the guy claim that he tried that and it wouldn't shift?
And he also claimed to have been standing on the brakes and that they didn't do anything. Even tried to use the emergency brake and nothing.
If he had his foot on the brakes a simple inspection of the pads/rotors will tell the truth because one or both would be worn beyond serviceability or show severe glazing, etc.
Can't be that hard. This guy managed to pick-up his cell phone and dial 911 while maintaining control of a runaway vehicle :-)
The officer who assisted the driver stated that he could smell the brakes burning as he drove by to assist the driver.
Could very well be overall, but this case sounds more like plain old fraud.
Yes but (giving him the benefit of the doubt) it took him a while. The police officer who helped him stop said his brakes were down to nothing.
What I never understood was why he refused to try a suggestion from the 911 operator that he take the car out of drive, that he move the gear-shift lever to neutral - he refused; which made no sense!
Despite reading many posts on FR slamming Toyota, I am reserving judgment on all of this. It seem very strange that after the government gets into the car business, the top selling company suddenly has all of these safety issues. The timing is not by coincidence IMO.
The Unit was my favorite show.
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