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2010-03-10 12:31:14
By ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press Writer Elliot Spagat, Associated Press
Writer 1 hr 11 mins ago
EL CAJON, Calif. Before he called 911, James Sikes says he reached down with
his hand to loosen the "stuck" accelerator on his 2008 Toyota Prius, his other
hand on the steering wheel. The pedal didn't move.
"My car can't slow down," he began when a California Highway Patrol dispatcher
answered his call.
Sikes, 61, rolled to a stop 23 harrowing minutes later, he and his blue Prius
emerging unscathed but Toyota Motor Corp. suffering another big dent. Toyota
has watched its reputation for quality crumble with recalls tied to risks that
cars can accelerate uncontrollably or can't brake properly.
Todd Neibert, the CHP officer who gave instructions to Sikes over a loudspeaker
as they went east on mountainous Interstate 8 in San Diego County Monday
afternoon, said he smelled burning brakes when he caught up with the Prius.
The officer said he told Sikes to push the brake pedal to the floor and apply
the emergency brakes as the Prius neared 85 mph. The car slowed to about 55
mph, at which time Sikes says he turned off the ignition and the car came to a
stop.
"The brakes were definitely down to hardly any material," Neibert told
reporters Tuesday. "There was a bunch of brake material on the ground and
inside the wheels."
The officer found the floor mat properly placed and the accelerator and brake
pedals in correct resting position.
The freeway incident happened at the worst possible time for Toyota just
hours after it invited reporters to hear experts insist that electronic flaws
could not cause cars to speed out of control under real driving conditions.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has sent two investigators
to examine the car. Toyota spokesman Brian Lyons said the automaker is sending
three of its own technicians to investigate.
Another Toyota spokesman, John Hanson, said the company wanted to talk to the
driver.
Sikes' car was covered by Toyota's floor mat recall, but the driver said the
pedal jammed and was not trapped under the mat.
Sikes, a real estate agent, said he was passing another car when the
accelerator stuck and eventually reached 94 mph.
During the two 911 calls, Sikes ignored many of the dispatcher's questions,
saying later that he had to put his phone on the seat to keep his hands on the
wheel.
Leighann Parks, a 24-year-old dispatcher, repeatedly told him to throw the car
into neutral but got no answers.
"He was very emotional, you could tell on the line he was panicked," Parks told
reporters outside the CHP's El Cajon office. "I could only imagine being in his
shoes and being that stressed."
Neibert told Sikes after the CHP caught up with him to shift to neutral but the
driver shook his head no. Sikes told reporters he didn't go into neutral
because he worried the car would flip.
The driver rolled down the window and Neibert told him to apply both brakes.
Sikes said he lifted his buttocks from the seat to press the floor brake, an
account backed by the officer.
The cars maneuvered around two trucks going uphill to a "clear, wide-open
road," Neibert said. The officer had only about 15 miles to stop the vehicle
before a steep downgrade and was considering spike strips to puncture the tires
as a last resort.
In the final minutes of the 911 call, Sikes tells the dispatcher, "My brakes
are almost burned out."
After the car stops, Sikes sighs with relief.
Neibert, a 14-year CHP veteran, worked with Officer Mark Saylor, who was killed
in August along with his wife, her brother and the couple's daughter after
their Lexus' accelerator became trapped by a wrong-size floor mat on a freeway
in nearby La Mesa. The loaner car hit a sport utility vehicle and burst into
flames.
Toyota has since recalled some 8.5 million vehicles worldwide more than 6
million in the United States because of acceleration problems in multiple
models and braking issues in the Prius. Regulators have linked 52 deaths to
crashes allegedly caused by accelerator problems. Still, there have been more
than 60 reports of sudden acceleration in cars that have been fixed under the
recall.
___
Associated Press writers Stephen Manning in Washington, D.C., and Greg Risling
in Los Angeles, and AP Auto Writer Dan Strumpf in New York contributed to this
report.
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Posted: 2010194@317.80
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stranger
Toyota Hybrid Horror Hoax
Michael Fumento, 03.12.10, 01:37 PM EST
Exploring an overblown media frenzy.
"On the very day Toyota was making a high-profile defense of its cars, one of
them was speeding out of control," said CBS News--and a vast number of other
media outlets worldwide. The driver of a 2008 Toyota Prius, James Sikes, called
911 to say his accelerator was stuck, he was zooming faster than 90 miles per
hour and absolutely couldn't slow down.
It got far more dramatic, though. The California Highway Patrol responded and
"To get the runaway car to stop, they actually had to put their patrol car in
front of the Prius and step on the brakes." During over 20 harrowing minutes,
according to NBC's report, Sikes "did everything he could to try to slow down
that Prius." Others said, "Radio traffic indicated the driver was unable to
turn off the engine or shift the car into neutral."
In fact, almost none of this was true. Virtually every aspect of Sikes's story
as told to reporters makes no sense. His claim that he'd tried to yank up the
accelerator could be falsified, with his help, in half a minute. And now we
even have an explanation for why he'd pull such a stunt, beyond the
all-American desire to have 15 minutes of fame (recall the "Balloon Boy Hoax"
from October) and the aching need to be perceived as a victim.
The lack of skepticism from the beginning was stunning. I combed through
haystacks of articles without producing such needles as the words "alleges" or
"claims." When Sikes said he brought his car to a Toyota ( TM - news - people )
dealer two weeks earlier, recall notice in hand, and they just turned him away,
the media bought that, too. In Sikes We Trust. Then the pundits deluged us with
a tsunami of an anti-Toyota sanctimony .
Where to begin?
Well, the patrol car didn't slow down the Prius; the bumpers never touched. The
officers used a loudspeaker to tell Sikes to use the brakes and emergency brake
together. He did; the car slowed to about 55 mph. Sikes turned off the engine
and coasted to a halt. He stopped the car on his own.
There wasn't anything wrong with the transmission or the Prius engine button
either.
Over a 23-minute period the 911 dispatcher repeatedly pleaded with Sikes to
shift into neutral. He simply refused and then essentially stopped talking to
her except to say that he thought he could smell his brakes burning.
"I thought about" shifting into neutral, Sikes said at a televised press
conference the day after the incident. But "I had never played with this kind
of a transmission, especially when you're driving and I was actually afraid to
do that." Sikes, who has driven the car for two years, also said "I figured if
I knocked it over [the gear knob] the car might flip."
He told CNN, "I was afraid to try to [reach] over there and put it in neutral.
I was holding onto the steering wheel with both hands--94 miles an hour in a
Toyota Prius is fast." Yet for much of the ride he had a phone in one hand. And
this is especially interesting: Most gear shifts are on the console, requiring
the hand to drop to shift. But, as this image shows, in the 2008 Prius it's
located on the dash within inches of the steering wheel precisely to allow
shifting without the hand leaving the wheel. I sat in one and did it easily.
Another unique feature of the shift is that it's amazingly simple, with only
forward, reverse, neutral and "B." The express purpose of "B" is to slow the
car while preserving the brakes, as in a steep descent. Sikes actually could
have shifted into two different gears.
Moreover, why would Sikes describe shifting gears as somehow "playing with the
transmission." And apparently he's never shifted while the vehicle was moving
and thought somehow a gear shift could flip his car.
The dispatcher also pleaded with him repeatedly to hit the ignition button.
Again, he says he was simply afraid to.
Early in the press conference he said it was because "There was too much
traffic to just shut the car off. You know, turn off the vehicle and get hit in
the rear." But that's always true when you slow down; just make sure nobody's
right behind you. Later he switched gears, pun not intended, saying he was
afraid the steering wheel and wheels would lock up.
Then there are the brakes.
Sikes said his brakes had just been checked out a few weeks earlier, but during
the incident he "was laying on the brakes. It was not slowing down."
Others have made similar claims, so Car & Driver magazine recently put them to
the test. They found a V-6 Camry at full throttle could be stopped at 435 feet.
But to really test the claim, they used a powerful 540-horsepower supercharged
Roush Stage 3 Mustang. It took 903 feet, but stop it did. By comparison the
Prius can only muster 110 anemic ponies. Further, as Newton's Second Law
reminds us, weight is inherently a factor in slowing a moving object. The Prius
weighs about two-thirds of what the Roush does.
But while these other cars were brought to full stop, Sikes says he couldn't
even reduce his speed. A video on the Web also demonstrates a 2008 Prius easily
slowed to a stop with the accelerator fully depressed.
An assisting officer said he saw Sikes apply the brakes and smelled them. But
of course that was only when he drew close to the vehicle. The officer doesn't
know what Sikes was doing before he arrived on the scene.
Now here's the potential smoking gun: Sikes told the reporters that "I was
reaching down and trying to pull up on the gas pedal. It didn't move at all; it
was stationary." That's awfully daring for somebody who insisted he didn't even
want to take a hand off his steering wheel, notwithstanding that he did so to
hold his phone.
I tried to imitate Sikes' alleged effort in a 2008 Prius. From the front bottom
of the steering wheel to the front bottom of the accelerator in up position
it's 28.5 inches; while fully deployed it's 2.5 inches farther away. I have
average-length arms (33-inch shirt sleeve) and no gut. But even though the
steering wheel was as flush to the dashboard as it goes, it prevented me from
all but touching the accelerator in the up position.
To reach behind a deployed accelerator and get any kind of a grip you'd have to
add at least three more inches. In my case, it required squashing my face
against the radio and completely removing my eyes from the road. Only the
tallest men could physically do what Sikes claimed he did and no press accounts
refer his being exceptionally tall. But to settle this issue (albeit not the
others), Sikes would simply have to sit in his Prius and show he could reach
behind the pedal while it was fully depressed. Why has nobody asked him to do
so? Moreover, even for an orangutan it would be an incredibly awkward move for
somebody afraid to pop a car into neutral or hit the ignition button.
So why did he do it? Sleuth work at the Web sites Jalopnik.com and Gawker.com
reveals that Sikes and his wife Patty in 2008 filed for bankruptcy and are over
$700,000 in debt. Among their creditors is Toyota Financial Services for a
lease on a 2008 Toyota Prius, with value at time of bankruptcy of $20,494. The
Jalopnik Web site shows a copy of Toyota's secured claims form, though when
Jalopnik questioned Sikes by e-mail he denied being behind on his Prius
payments.
Sikes also has a history of filing insurance claims for allegedly stolen items
that are slowly coming to light. In 2001 he filed a police report with the
Merced County Sheriff's Department for $58,000 in stolen property, including
jewelry, a prosumer mini-DV camera and gear, and $24,000 in cash, according to
Fox40 in Sacramento. His bankruptcy documents show a 2008 payment of $7,400 for
an allegedly stolen saxophone and clothes.
For what it's worth, Sikes owned and operated a Web site called
AdultSwingLife.com. More salacious material on this man will continue to pour
in.
But the press conference alone makes it clear Sikes' story didn't wash.
Journalism schools are supposed to teach that skepticism is paramount. "If your
mother says it, check it out," goes the old adage. Yet comments on Web sites
across the country reveal that practically everyone thought the Prius incident
was a hoax--though they couldn't prove it--except for the media.
They have been as determined to not investigate Sikes' claims as Sikes was to
not stop his car. It's a Toyota media feeding frenzy and the media aren't about
to let little things like incredible stories and readily-refutable claims get
in the way.
Michael Fumento is director of the nonprofit Independent Journalism Project
where he specialized in science issues. He can be reached at fumento@pobox.com.
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Posted: 2010197@310.10
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stranger
APNewsBreak: Probe questions runaway Prius story
By ELLIOT SPAGAT and KEN THOMAS, Associated Press Writers Elliot Spagat And Ken
Thomas, Associated Press Writers 55 mins ago
SAN DIEGO Investigators with Toyota Motor Corp. and the federal government
were unable to make a Toyota Prius speed out of control as its owner said it
did on a California freeway, according to a draft memorandum obtained Saturday
by The Associated Press that casts doubt on the driver's story.
James Sikes, 61, called 911 on Monday to report losing control of his Prius as
the hybrid reached speeds of 94 mph. A California Highway Patrol officer helped
Sikes bring the vehicle to a safe stop on Interstate 8 near San Diego.
During two hours of test drives of Sikes' car Thursday, technicians with Toyota
and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration failed to duplicate the
same experience that Sikes described, according to the memo prepared for the
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
"Every time the technician placed the gas pedal to the floor and the brake
pedal to the floor the engine shut off and the car immediately started to slow
down," the memo said.
The report says that, according to Toyota's "residential Hybrid expert," the
Prius is designed to shut down if the brakes are applied while the gas pedal is
pressed to the floor. If it doesn't, the engine would "completely seize."
"In this case, knowing that we are able to push the car around the shop, it
does not appear to be feasibly possible, both electronically and mechanically
that his gas pedal was stuck to the floor and he was slamming on the brake at
the same time," the memo said.
The findings raise questions about "the credibility of Mr. Sikes' reporting of
events," said Kurt Bardella, a spokesman for California Rep. Darrell Issa, the
top Republican on the committee, which is looking into the incident.
Sikes could not be reached to comment. However, his wife, Patty Sikes, said he
stands by his story.
"Everyone can just leave us alone," she said. "Jim didn't get hurt. There's no
intent at all to sue Toyota. If any good can come out of this, maybe they can
find out what happened so other people don't get killed."
Mrs. Sikes said the couple's lives have been turned upside down since Monday
and they are getting death threats.
"We're just fed up with all of it," she said. "Our careers are ruined and life
is just not good anymore."
Monday's incident appeared to be another blow to Toyota, which has had to fend
off intense public backlash over safety after recalls of some 8.5 million
vehicles worldwide more than 6 million in the United States because of
acceleration and floor mat problems in multiple models and braking issues in
the Prius. Regulators have linked 52 deaths to crashes allegedly caused by
accelerator problems.
The brakes on the Prius also did not show wear consistent with having been
applied at full force at high speeds for a long period, the Wall Street Journal
reported Saturday, citing three people familiar with the probe, whom it did not
name. The newspaper said the brakes may have been applied intermittently.
Toyota Corp. spokesman Mike Michels declined to confirm the Journal's report.
He said the investigation was continuing and the company planned to release
technical findings soon.
Michels said the hybrid braking system in the Prius would make the engine lose
power if the brakes and accelerator were pressed at the same time.
The memo did say that investigators found the front brake pads were spent.
"Visually checking the brake pads and rotor it was clearly visible that there
was nothing left," it said.
The rear brake pads had 1/2 mm left, or 3 1/2 mm less than new pads, the memo
said.
Jill Zuckman, spokeswoman for the U.S. Transportation Department that oversees
the highway safety agency, said investigators "are still reviewing data and
have not reached any conclusions."
Sikes called 911 from the freeway on Monday and reported that his gas pedal was
stuck and he could not slow down. In two calls that spanned 23 minutes, a
dispatcher repeatedly told him to throw the car into neutral and turn it off.
Sikes later said he had put down the phone to keep both hands on the wheel and
was afraid the car would flip if he put it in neutral at such high speed.
The officer who eventually pulled alongside the car and told Sikes over a
loudspeaker to push the brake pedal to the floor and apply the emergency brake
said Sikes braking coincided with a steep incline on the freeway.
Once the car slowed to 50 mph, Sikes shut off the engine, the officer said.
The memorandum obtained by The AP said when investigators placed the Prius up
on a lift, they found the driver side front wheel well was dislodged and the
brake pads were worn down. "Visually checking the brake pads and rotor it was
clearly visible that there was nothing left," the memo said.
The memo describes a series of tests conducted by the company and NHTSA on
Wednesday and Thursday. A full diagnostics was conducted, followed an
inspection of the brakes and a test drive. The Prius was compared with a
separate test vehicle provided by the San Diego dealership with identical year,
make, model and color features as the one under investigation.
Following the tests, NHTSA bought the gas pedal, throttle body and the two
computers from Sikes' vehicle, the memo said. The estimated cost was $2,500 for
the parts and labor.
Drivers of two other Toyota vehicles that crashed last week said those
incidents also resulted from the vehicles accelerating suddenly.
NHTSA is sending experts to a New York City suburb where the driver of a 2005
Prius said she crashed into a stone wall Monday after the car accelerated on
its own.
And in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the driver of a 2007 Lexus said it careened through
a parking lot and crashed into a light pole Thursday after its accelerator
suddenly dropped to the floor. That car was the subject of a floor mat recall.
Driver Myrna Cook of Paulding, Ohio, said it had been repaired.
___
Thomas reported from Washington, D.C.
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Posted: 2010203@464.18
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stranger
Toyota dismisses Calif. man's runaway Prius report
By ELLIOT SPAGAT and TOM KRISHER, Associated Press Writers Elliot Spagat And
Tom Krisher, Associated Press Writers 2 hrs 30 mins ago
SAN DIEGO Toyota Motor Corp. was quiet last week when James Sikes told
reporters how the gas pedal got stuck on his 2008 Prius, leading him on a wild
ride on a Southern California freeway.
Now the Japanese automaker is talking at length about how its tests don't
support Sikes' version of events, and the driver is quiet.
Toyota says its tests showed the car's gas pedal, backup safety system and
electronics were working fine. It was unable to replicate the stuck gas pedal
that Sikes reported.
The automaker said Monday that it found Sikes rapidly pressed the gas and
brakes back and forth 250 times, the maximum amount of data that the car's
self-diagnostic system can collect. That account appears to contradict Sikes'
statements backed by the California Highway Patrol that he slammed the
brakes, even lifting his buttocks off the seat.
Toyota officials said they believed Sikes hit the pedals lightly, which would
have prevented a brake-override system from kicking in. Under the Prius design,
engine power is cut if the brake pedal is pressed with moderate force.
Toyota stopped short of saying that Sikes fabricated his story.
"We have no opinion on his account, what he's been saying, other than the
scenario is not consistent with the technical findings," spokesman Mike Michels
said at a news conference.
The episode March 8 was among the highest-profile headaches Toyota has suffered
in recent months. It recalled more than 8 million cars and trucks worldwide
because gas pedals can become stuck in the down position or be snagged by floor
mats. Dozens of Toyota drivers have reported problems even after their cars
were supposedly fixed.
The company had no explanation for discrepancies with Sikes' account but
confirmed the brakes were overheated and the pads worn. Bob Waltz, vice
president of product, quality and service support at Toyota Motor Sales USA,
said the front brakes were "metal to metal."
Toyota said it believes a CHP officer's account that he smelled burning brakes
while guiding Sikes on the freeway. Officials said repeatedly pressing the
pedal could have overheated the brakes but were unclear why the car didn't stop
sooner than it did.
"That is the puzzling aspect of this," Michels said in an interview. "All we
know are the engineering facts. We looked at all the components, they all
work."
Toyota said its tests showed the car's electronics were working fine.
"If there were some kind of electronic problem, you would think it might
actually stay permanent," Michels said. "When your TV goes on the fritz, when
electronic stuff goes on the fritz, it doesn't just do it once and never do it
again."
Sikes, 61, has said his car raced to 94 mph on Interstate 8 east of San Diego.
He said he reached down with one hand to try to pull the pedal back, while
keeping the other hand on the wheel. He called 911 but did not respond to
repeated instructions from the dispatcher to throw the car into neutral.
The CHP officer eventually helped bring the car safely to a stop by telling him
over a loudspeaker to hit the emergency brake and foot brake simultaneously.
Sikes spoke to reporters shortly after the incident but has since kept a low
profile. He did not respond to phone messages Monday.
John Gomez, Sikes' attorney, said Monday that he would not comment on the
episode until a government investigation was complete. Gomez has noted
previously that Toyota has never been able to replicate stuck accelerator.
"This problem is sort of a ghost in the machine that is the Toyota system," he
said Sunday. "It doesn't leave a fault code, it doesn't leave a footprint, and
you can't make it happen upon demand."
The 2008 Prius is subject to a recall for floor mats but not sticky
accelerators.
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Posted: 2010206@461.78
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stranger
Toyota shifts scrutiny of runaway cars to NY Prius
By DAN STRUMPF and KEN THOMAS, Associated Press Writers Dan Strumpf And Ken
Thomas, Associated Press Writers Tue Mar 16, 6:11 pm ET
NEW YORK Toyota's investigation of sudden acceleration in some of its cars is
shifting to suburban New York, where a driver said her Prius sped up on its own
and slammed into a stone wall.
Technicians from Toyota will join government investigators in Harrison, N.Y.,
on Wednesday to inspect the car. Toyota plans to examine an internal data
recorder that documents the moments before and after a crash.
The company will use equipment to determine how many times the driver hit the
brakes and gas. It used the same tools earlier this week to cast doubt on a
California driver who claimed his Prius sped to 94 mph before a patrol officer
helped him stop it.
In the Harrison case, authorities have said there is no indication of driver
error. A housekeeper told police the car sped up on its own as she eased
forward down her employer's driveway on March 9 and hit a wall across the
street. She was not hurt.
Toyota recalled more than 8 million cars because their gas pedals could become
stuck or be snagged by floor mats. In addition, the government is looking into
complaints from at least 60 Toyota drivers who say they got their cars fixed
and still had problems. Toyota is checking into those complaints as well.
The investigations reflect challenges faced by the company and government.
Dealers and experts have had trouble recreating episodes of sudden
acceleration, and Toyota says tests have failed to find other problems beyond
the sticking gas pedals and floor mats.
Some safety experts have said electronics, not simpler mechanical flaws, could
be causing the problems. Toyota has said it has found no evidence of problems
with its electronics but is studying the issue.
"It's not the old garden-variety defect investigation, where you have a broken
part and the vehicle is disabled. It's an intermittent problem," said Allan J.
Kam, a former senior enforcement attorney for the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration who now directs a private consulting firm.
Toyota officials said they did not know how long the New York investigation
would take. The company plans to release the results to Harrison police but not
to the media because the police are also investigating.
The Prius is not on Toyota's recall list for sticky accelerators. However, the
2005 hybrid had been serviced for the floor mat problem.
On Monday, Toyota held a press conference in San Diego to challenge the story
of James Sikes, who claimed his Prius sped out of control on the freeway last
week. The company said its own tests had found almost nothing wrong with the
car, and said Sikes had apparently pressed the brakes and gas at least 250
times.
Jason Vines, who was Ford Motor Co.'s top public relations executive when the
company faced scrutiny over massive Firestone tire recalls on its cars in 2000,
said the San Diego case would prompt similar interest in the New York
investigation.
"They've gotten themselves into another box because of doing it one time in San
Diego and now not doing it (in Harrison)," Vines said. "It's just going to
create more confusion."
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Posted: 2010211@446.68
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stranger
Feds: Brakes weren't applied on crashed NY Prius
By JIM FITZGERALD and KEN THOMAS, Associated Press Writers Jim Fitzgerald And
Ken Thomas, Associated Press Writers Fri Mar 19, 1:35 am ET
HARRISON, N.Y. Computer data from a Toyota Prius that crashed in suburban New
York City show that at the time of the accident the throttle was open and the
driver was not applying the brakes, U.S. safety officials said Thursday.
The disclosure prompted an angry response from the police captain investigating
the cause of the accident. He said his probe was not over and driver error had
not been established.
"For any agency to release data and to draw conclusions without consulting with
the law enforcement agency that brought this to light could be self-serving,"
said Capt. Anthony Marraccini of the Harrison, N.Y., force.
A housekeeper driving the car on March 9 told police that it sped up on its own
down a driveway, despite her braking, and crashed into a stone wall across the
street. She was not seriously hurt.
The accident set off an intense investigation because Toyota has recalled more
than 8 million cars since last fall over gas pedals that could become stuck or
be held down by floor mats.
The Prius hasn't been recalled for sticky accelerators. However, the car
involved in the accident under investigation had been repaired for the floor
mat problem. An Associated Press analysis of government data found more than
100 reports of repaired cars continuing to accelerate on their own.
Technicians from Toyota and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
and the police department's own consultants examined the wrecked 2005 Prius
outside police headquarters in Harrison on Wednesday. Marraccini said NHTSA
also interviewed the driver.
On Thursday, NHTSA said information from the car's computer systems indicated
there was no application of the brakes and the throttle was fully open. It did
not elaborate.
The Prius is equipped with an event data recorder, or "black box" designed to
record the state of the car at the moment of the impact.
Marraccini cautioned that even if NHTSA's disclosure is accurate, "This is a
snapshot. This is not the total investigation."
He said the Harrison police have not closed their investigation or examined all
data that was retrieved.
Earlier, the captain also criticized Toyota for announcing the evidence was
"conclusive" and for providing him with data from the recorder but not the
software he needed to read it.
"You can't open it, you can't read it, you can't do anything with it,"
Marraccini said.
Toyota spokesman Wade Hoyt said later that the company was arranging for the
police to get temporary access to the needed software "at a reduced cost." He
said it typically costs about $7,000 but is also available on a temporary basis
for $50.
In a report earlier this month, The Associated Press found that for years,
Toyota has blocked access to data stored in the "black boxes" that could
explain crashes blamed on sudden unintended acceleration.
Marraccini said police would be meeting again Friday with Toyota and he
believed the company would cooperate fully.
___
Thomas reported from Washington. AP Auto Writer Dan Strumpf in New York
contributed to this report.