According to a report from 11 Alive, insurance investigators are continuing to look into a Christmas Eve accident in which a Newnan off-duty first responder was forced to crash his vehicle after the accelerator got stuck. The first responder was traveling in a 2006 GT Mustang when the incident occurred. He tried pressing the brake, shifting gears, or even pulling the emergency brake, the report notes. With the Mustang traveling at a speed of 110 mph, the man realized he was going to have to crash the vehicle.
He crashed in an empty parking lot, with the vehicle rolling over five times. He suffered a lung injury and a dislocated thumb but was able to go back to work within days. While the first responder said most people he had spoken to had never heard of a vehicle’s accelerator getting stuck, 11 Alive discovered that both Ford and Toyota have had recalls within the last 20 years for stuck accelerators.
Between 2009-2011, Toyota recalled around 14 million vehicles due to an issue with the accelerator pedal that caused the vehicle to accelerate without the ability to slow down. The defect resulted in the deaths of around 40 people, according to Yahoo Finance. In 2010 Toyota recalled another 81 million vehicles due to gas pedals getting trapped beneath the floor mats. According to Seeking Alpha, a class action lawsuit was filed in 2013 alleging that many Ford models manufactured between 2002 – 2010 were vulnerable to unintended acceleration. The issues involved the lack of a brake override system in many different models that would stop acceleration when the brakes were depressed, even if the gas pedal was also being pressed, such as it would be if it was trapped under a floor mat.
If you’ve been injured in a car accident, an experienced car accident attorney from Cambre & Associates can evaluate your case for free and tell you about your legal options for seeking compensation for the expenses and impacts of your injury. Contact us.