Posted by Daniel who wants to know on March 11, 2010, 4:35 am
>>
>>>
>>>> If the car is put in neutral, how is it that it was able to keep
>>>> going? Only a total idiot would pull the emergency brake rather than
>>>> simply putting the car in neutral.
>>
>>> He's an idiot:
>>>
>>> "When the accelerator stuck, he said he weighed all his options. He
>>> feared turning the car off in the middle of traffic, expecting the
>>> steering wheel to lock. If he shifted into neutral, he worried that it
>>> would slip into reverse.
>>
>> He was worried more about breaking the transmission than he was about
>> saving his life? I hope the news reports on this guy do a bit of digging
>> into his background (for example his current financial status) to see if
>> there might be a reason for such a non-credible story.
> I also saw this guy on the news and he was saying that he didn't try
> shifting into neutral because he was "afraid I'd flip the car". I don't
> think that would happen even if he had deliberately shifted into to
> reverse! I doubt that any modern car, with an automatic transmission,
> would allow you to shift into reverse at any speed. Your transmission
> will not break! In fact, my prior car had a manual shift and it was
> impossible to shift into reverse when at any speed, it simply would go
> into reverse.
> Here's a link to an article containing 2 videos of people shifting their
> Prius's into neutral at speed and one where they shut down the engine
> going over 70+ mph without ANY problems.
> http://blog.seattlepi.com/techchron/archives/197221.asp
Here too:
http://lusciousgarage.com/blog/comments/floor_mat_anxiety_lg_tv_investigates/
Posted by Maynard G. Krebs on March 11, 2010, 10:52 pm
Here's some more interesting info on this incident. It appears that the
driver, James Sikes, had recently filed for bankruptcy and has over $00,000
in debt. He's also 5 months worth of payments behind on the Prius in
question. So there might have been a financial motivation to fake this
incident. Of course denies he's in it for the money! I'm sure it's just
coincidence that he keeps appearing all over CNN and that his Prius was
likely to be repo'd soon.
http://jalopnik.com/5491101/
Posted by Obveeus on March 12, 2010, 12:19 am
> Here's some more interesting info on this incident. It appears that the
> driver, James Sikes, had recently filed for bankruptcy and has over
> $00,000 in debt. He's also 5 months worth of payments behind on the
> Prius in question. So there might have been a financial motivation to
> fake this incident. Of course denies he's in it for the money! I'm sure
> it's just coincidence that he keeps appearing all over CNN and that his
> Prius was likely to be repo'd soon.
Why am I not surprised at all by this development. In fact, I was pretty
sure he would turn out to be someone with severe financial problems.
Posted by ransley on March 13, 2010, 12:01 am
> Here's some more interesting info on this incident. It appears that the
> driver, James Sikes, had recently filed for bankruptcy and has over $00,000
> in debt. He's also 5 months worth of payments behind on the Prius in
> question. So there might have been a financial motivation to fake this
> incident. Of course denies he's in it for the money! I'm sure it's just
> coincidence that he keeps appearing all over CNN and that his Prius was
> likely to be repo'd soon.
> http://jalopnik.com/5491101/
Now that makes sense, he is broke and he did say he wont drive that
car again, and the lady in NY that hit a wall probably was doing her
makup. Runaway is the #1 excuse for all acidents now with this car. So
which ones are real? Some are. If it was me id put it in neutral and
simply brake, and use the emergency brake if needed.
Posted by Davoud on March 13, 2010, 12:23 am
Mark_Ransley
> Now that makes sense, [sic] he is broke and he did say he wont [sic] drive that
> car again, and the lady in NY that [sic] hit a wall probably was doing her
> makup [sic]. Runaway is the #1 excuse for all acidents now with this car
[sic]. So
> which ones are real? Some are. If it was me id [sic] put it in neutral and
> simply brake, and use the emergency brake if needed.
You might put it in neutral if the software allowed you to do that. I'm
not saying that it wouldn't, only that the cause of these incidents is
not yet known.
Davoud
--
I agree with almost everything that you have said and almost everything that
you will say in your entire life.
usenet *at* davidillig dawt cawm
>>>
>>>> If the car is put in neutral, how is it that it was able to keep
>>>> going? Only a total idiot would pull the emergency brake rather than
>>>> simply putting the car in neutral.
>>
>>> He's an idiot:
>>>
>>> "When the accelerator stuck, he said he weighed all his options. He
>>> feared turning the car off in the middle of traffic, expecting the
>>> steering wheel to lock. If he shifted into neutral, he worried that it
>>> would slip into reverse.
>>
>> He was worried more about breaking the transmission than he was about
>> saving his life? I hope the news reports on this guy do a bit of digging
>> into his background (for example his current financial status) to see if
>> there might be a reason for such a non-credible story.
> I also saw this guy on the news and he was saying that he didn't try
> shifting into neutral because he was "afraid I'd flip the car". I don't
> think that would happen even if he had deliberately shifted into to
> reverse! I doubt that any modern car, with an automatic transmission,
> would allow you to shift into reverse at any speed. Your transmission
> will not break! In fact, my prior car had a manual shift and it was
> impossible to shift into reverse when at any speed, it simply would go
> into reverse.
> Here's a link to an article containing 2 videos of people shifting their
> Prius's into neutral at speed and one where they shut down the engine
> going over 70+ mph without ANY problems.
> http://blog.seattlepi.com/techchron/archives/197221.asp