New information about yesterday's runaway Prius indicates the CHP had to tell the driver to use both the brake and the emergency brake. More proof of beige biting back.
Much of yesterday's out-of-control Prius story confused us and the interview on CNN with driver Jim Sikes has us even more perplexed. At one point he says he was "standing on the pedal" indicating a brake pedal that couldn't overwhelm an accelerator. Then he goes on to mention he tried to pull the accelerator pedal up by hand — not a move normally recommended. Eventually he was able to turn the car off and stop.
According to NBC San Diego the driver was possibly already concerned about the possibility of being in a runaway car:
He said he had visited Toyota of El Cajon to get the vehicle serviced and to take care of a recall notice on the acceleration. He said that the dealership told him that his was not a model covered by the recall and he was turned away.
The Prius is a second-generation model and should be under the floor mat recall, but there's no fix for Prius drivers with this issue yet and the driver is adamant the floor mats were fine.
It may turn out this driver had a serious issue, but his response to it is exactly what we mean by beige bites back. To quote an appropriate line from Engines Of Our Ingenuity
"The price of convenience is loss of control, loss even of understanding. And we wonder: How far can we trust what we cannot follow?"