Another blow for Toyota. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration dispatched investigators to San Diego on Tuesday, following an incident that a Prius accelerated out of control on a freeway a day earlier.

 

The Prius was traveling at a high rate of speed on a southern California freeway on Monday, and suddenly it sped out of control.

The driver tried to physically pull the gas pedal up with his hand, and stay on the road.

The car sped 30 miles, or 48 kilometers along the freeway for 20 minutes, at one point it reached about 144 kilometers per hour.

The car finally stopped with a Highway Patrol car in front of it, and fortunately, the driver was unharmed.

Jim Sikes, Prius Owner, said, "I just stayed on the brakes as much as I could- until finally they started smelling really bad and I had metal sounds coming in the car. It got down to about 55 miles and I pushed the button to shut it off and it didn't shut off, so I did it a couple more times; it did shut down and kind of rolled to a stop until I bumped into the back of his car."

The incident has raised new questions about whether Toyota has done enough to address consumer complaints about unintended acceleration.

The driver says he took his 2008 Prius to a dealer and handed workers his recall notice last month. He said they handed it back and told him his vehicle was not on the recall list.

The government has sent a team to investigate.

Toyota had also dispatched a technical specialist to San Diego to investigate and offer assistance.