Another Runaway Prius Incident Now Appears Bogus

This incident occurred a day after the now discredited "runaway" Prius story in San Diego. It may not be a staged stunt like that, but rather driver error.

The investigation of a Toyota Prius accident in Harrison, N.Y., suggests driver error may have been to blame, after federal safety regulators said the brakes had not been applied and the throttle was "wide open," the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

The driver, a 56-year-old housekeeper, told the police that the car accelerated as she drove down her employer's driveway March 9 and hit a stone wall across the street. The driver said she believed she had applied full force to the brakes, according to the police.

Based on information retrieved from the vehicle's onboard computer systems, a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration spokeswoman said: "There was no application of the brakes and the throttle was fully open."

Toyota downloaded data from the vehicle Wednesday, but said a fail-safe system would have prevented such an accident.

Funny how these runaway Prius incidents suddenly stopped, isn't it?