EL CAJON, Calif. — A California Highway Patrol officer responding to a report of a runaway Toyota Prius last week arrived to find a Border Patrol agent near the driver with emergency lights on.

The Border Patrol presence raises the prospect that there were other witnesses. It is one of the few new details in a report released by the CHP that is consistent with what the CHP and the driver, James Sikes, have previously said.

But the seven-page CHP report sheds no new light on wildly divergent explanations from Toyota and Sikes about what happened when the driver called 911 on March 8 to report his gas pedal was stuck on a California freeway, sending him to speeds topping 90 mph.

Toyota has dismissed Sikes' account, saying its tests show he pressed the gas and brakes rapidly 250 times, the maximum amount of data the car's self-diagnostic system captures.

The report revisits the harrowing ride Sikes and CHP Officer Todd Neibert described to reporters shortly after the episode on Interstate 8, east of San Diego.

Neibert wrote he approached the Prius from behind to find a Border Patrol agent in an unmarked Chevrolet Tahoe with emergency lights illuminated from the rear window.

"It was staying ahead of us and it was later determined that the agent driving the Chevrolet Tahoe was aware of the situation," Neibert wrote.

The report does not say how long the Border Patrol agent was in Sikes' proximity or whether the agent saw anything significant. CHP spokesman Brian Pennings said the agency is attempting to get a statement from the agent.

Sikes was able to stop the vehicle by applying the foot brake and hand brake as the car went up a hill.

Pennings reaffirmed CHP's position that no evidence has emerged to doubt Sikes' version of events.

By The Associated Press