Put It In Neutral

In most of the stories of sudden runaway acceleration in various Toyota cars, what puzzles me is why the drivers don't shift the transmission to neutral. If the entire incident unfolds in a few seconds, okay; but when the car is careening down the freeway for 23 minutes something isn't making any sense.

James Sikes weaved through traffic on Interstate 8 for 23 minutes, talking on the phone with a 911 dispatcher, until a highway patrol officer helped him stop the car. The dispatcher instructed him several times to put the transmission into neutral, and he didn't. The highway patrol officer instructed him via loudspeaker to shift into neutral, and he refused. He claims he thought shifting into neutral might make the car flip and that “there was nothing else he could have done to stop the car.”

This doesn't make any sense, and I see two possibilities here:

1. He faked the whole thing, risking the safety of everyone else on that highway, and is lying. While there is speculation about this (and some interesting, though possibly irrelevant, background), since it seems he's not going to sue Toyota, it's not clear why he would do that.

2. He is unbelievably stupid, and risked the safety of everyone else on that highway with his astonishing irresponsibility. Refusing to shift into neutral? Really?

Toyota is mystified by the incident. NHTSA is investigating. As uncomfortable as I am with the entire idea of drive-by-wire throttle, I think there may be more to this story than a simple technical defect.

UPDATE: I'm not the only one. Here is a detailed debunking as well as some more bizarre background. Even the Associated Press is asking questions.