In today's report on the Prius story, the 911 operator reports the driver did not respond to repeated instructions to put the car in neutral. The driver claims he did not hear much of that because he had put the phone down so he could use both hands to steer. (I assume he's never driven a manual transmission that requires one to steer with one hand while shifting with the other.) He also claims he was afraid to shift into neutral because he thought it might cause the car to flip over.
.... As I said at the beginning, I think driver error is the major contributor to most of these incidents. And I agree with joyridin that this sounds like someone looking for either a lawsuit or escape from paying for a Prius.