Toyota, U.S. officials investigate runaway Prius

U.S. safety regulators and Toyota dispatched teams on Tuesday to inspect a Prius that sped out of control on a California freeway a day earlier, as the automaker struggled to reassure consumers shaken by its recall crisis.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said two investigators from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration were sent to San Diego "to be part of the investigation" of Monday's incident, which left the driver of a runaway car rattled but unhurt. "NHTSA is reminding owners of all recalled vehicles to contact their dealers immediately if they are experiencing problems," NHTSA spokeswoman Olivia Alair said in a statement.

Toyota Motor Corp said its own inspectors were working on Tuesday to try to find out what caused the 2008 Prius to surge uncontrollably to over 90 miles per hour as it was being driven by its owner, James Sikes, 61.

The incident, involving a dramatic pursuit by a highway patrol car, came at a bad time for Toyota, which has struggled in recent weeks to reassure a jittery public it has turned a corner in dealing with safety issues that sparked a recall of 8.5 million vehicles worldwide. Seven weeks into the crisis, Toyota has begun trying to reverse a slump in its new car sales by offering buyers aggressive discounts.

BAD TIMING Just hours before news broke of the San Diego mishap, Toyota held a news conference seeking to discredit an external study critical of its computerized safety systems and denying again the existence of a flaw in its electronic engine throttles that could cause sudden, unintended acceleration.

Adding to its woes, the company expanded a repair campaign for 2000-2003 model Tundra pickup trucks to address a risk that part of the truck's frame could corrode.

Rust problems had previously surfaced in Tacoma trucks built between 1995 and 2000, prompting Toyota to take the unusual step in 2008 of offering to buy back vehicles with frames rusted beyond repair.

It fixed the others for free and extended the warranty on over 800,000 of the vehicles in North America.