Complaint 2214658

Complaint Summary

FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM

Owner Narrative

OnXXX, as we approached what I call the 6 o’clock position of a round-about in [XXX], we had braked almost to a full stop (0-5 mph) to wait on the car ahead of us to enter the round-about when we felt increasing movement. Despite braking, to wait on that car, our car with increasing speed started shoving that car into the circle. Fortunately, he was able to drive away from us, but that car had been damaged on the back and right side. With that obstacle out of the way, our car rapidly and exponentially increased speed - all while we were fully braking. Two witnesses said they saw our brake lights as we sped along. We hit the curb as we approached the 12 o’clock exit, and that turned us so that we crossed both lanes of the road and headed towards the far sidewalk and storefronts. When we hit that curb it pushed us diagonally to face the street again. Hard to estimate but we must have been doing 50 mph when we hit a very large brick planter and we finally were wedged to a stop when we slammed in between two vehicles parked parallel to the sidewalk. The motor ran for a few seconds after we stopped, and finally quit on its own. We KNOW the brake was applied the whole time; there were no visual or audible alarms from the car as we entered “UNINTENDED ACCELERATION”. Despite the incredibly strong impact (our car has been deemed totaled) the front air bags did not deploy. Only the driver’s side curtain deployed. The bumper of the parked transport van on our front left was damaged, and the small SUV on our front right was deemed totaled. No people were in those two parked cars; the first car was hit at the initial slower speed so those people were not injured. By some grace, no pedestrians were in our path or they would surely have been killed. The driver of our car (my husband) was miraculously not injured, but CT scans and x-rays showed I had several contusions and a fractured tibia that will require surgery due to brake, propulsion, no air bags. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION AC

Owner-submitted narrative on file with NHTSA. Complaint narratives are self-reported and have not been verified.