Police Help Runaway Toyota Prius Stop Safely in California (VIDEO)

A police officer in California helped the driver of a runaway Toyota Prius slow his vehicle from 94 mph to a safe stop on Monday after the car's accelerator got stuck on a freeway in San Diego County, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Driver James Sikes said that the incident was especially disturbing because just two weeks earlier he took his car to a dealer for repairs after learning about the recall notice, but he was turned away.

"I gave them my recall notice and they handed it back and said I'm not on the recall list," said Sikes.

Toyota says it has dispatched a field technical specialist to San Diego to investigate the mishap.

On Monday afternoon, Sikes called 911 around 1:30 p.m. local time after speeding up to pass another vehicle and realizing that he couldn't slow his car.

"I pushed the gas pedal to pass a car and it did something kind of funny ... it jumped and it just stuck there," said Sikes, 61, at a press conference.

"As it was going, I was trying the brakes ... it wasn't stopping, it wasn't doing anything and it just kept speeding up," Sikes said.  He also mentioned that he could smell his brakes burning as he was pressing the pedal.

A police car pulled alongside him and officers used a loudspeaker to instruct Sikes to push the brake pedal to the floor and to also apply the emergency brake.

"They also got it going on a steep upgrade," said Officer Jesse Udovich. "Between those three things, they got it to slow down."

After the Prius dropped to about 50 mph, Sikes turned off the engine and coasted safely to a stop.

The police officer then maneuvered his car in front of the car as an added precaution.

Toyota has recalled around 8.5 million vehicles worldwide since fall of last year due to acceleration problems in multiple models and braking issues in the Prius.

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See the video below for more:

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