…SITD wasn’t the first to take notice, but we smelled this a mile away.
A federal safety investigation of the Toyota Prius that was involved in a dramatic incident on a California highway last week found a particular pattern of wear on the car’s brakes that raises questions about the driver’s version of the event, three people familiar with the investigation said.
On Monday James Sikes, 61 years old, called 911 and told the operator his blue 2008 Toyota Prius had sped up to more than 90 miles per hour on its own on Interstate 8 near San Diego. He eventually brought the vehicle to a stop after a California Highway patrolman pulled alongside Mr. Sikes and offered help.
During and after the incident, Mr. Sikes said he was using heavy pressure on his brake pedal at high speeds.
But the investigation of the vehicle, carried out jointly by safety officials from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Toyota engineers, didn’t find signs the brakes had been applied at full force at high speeds over a sustained period of time, the three people familiar with the investigation said.
Multiple sites (ex. Fox News, courtesy Bill C.) are reporting Mr. Sikes is in financial trouble and my have simply been looking to get out of his obligations on the Toyota Prius.
A one-time business partner of Sikes says that he’s a scam artist.
Megan McCardle notes some interesting patterns among the Toyota drivers who have claimed to suffer runaway acceleration:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/03/how-real-are-the-defects-in-toyotas-cars/37448/
A history of strange insurance claims (how much cash did you say was stolen from your house?), way in debt, and a pXr-n site operator. Yep.
Oh, and you must have read about the Twin Cities area guy who is suing Toyota for loss of resale value in his car. Like they say, 99% of the lawyers give the rest a bad name.
A sad case aside from the sleaze aspect. I imagine that there are a lot of boomers in their early 60’s with little savings, a gutted retirement plan, and 30 years left to pay on a $4000/month mortgage. No time, now, to recover any wealth before retirement. Hard to think of how they can make it on $20k/year from Social Security.
Sikes probably figured that his Toyota came with a winning lottery ticket in the glove compartment.
Thanks for the mention JR.
I also saw this on JWF: http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/2010/03/runaway-prius-story-looking-dubious.html
Sleaze is quickly becoming the appropriate description of this guy.
and remember Terry the boomers unlike any other generation are slaves to the media hype they generate – It is after all, all about them!
If there is an epitaph for the boomer generation Any Rand wrote it :
You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.
– Ayn Rand
It’s their world, we just live in it, Kel.
The looting of the younger generations has just begun.
Not looting, Terry. Enslavement, for the good of the Collective. It’s time to embrace your Progressive overlords. After all, they know what’s best.