What Should You Do If Your Car Accelerates Out of Control?

i am not the smartest person here but if i were in this spot i would either put it in netural or turn the key off and coast to a stop

Just watched ABC News and the world is now a better place without the she Sheriff and the people in the car that have enough time to call 911 TWICE about their car speeding out of control but are too stupid to put the car in NEUTRAL, PARK, OR SHUT THE CAR OFF!!!!!!!! I bet they may have even changed the radio to a different station.

I used to have a 1986 Toyota Camry back in the mid nineties and one day when my son-in-law was driving it, it accelerated beyond control. He managed to get it back to his destination. I called the Toyota dealer in the Shoals area of Alabama and they came to Nashville where this event happened and brought my car home on a carrier, fixed the problem and charged me nothing. Just before all this happened, they had been doing some work on my car and I don`t remember what it was that they worked on. I always believed something they did caused the problem in the first place but they didn`t seem to think so. It never gave me any trouble the rest of the time I had it.

I now have another Toyota Camry and occasionally the accelerator seems to want to stick when I start off from a traffic light.It is slow to accelerate when that happens.

Sounds like the Toyota is like Airbus....Override the human in control....First rule, don't panic, follow his ideas but I would still suggest shutting the ignition off...Heaven forbid you have to stear without power stearing, for those of us that learned to drive without power stearing, it's not as hard as the engineer says...

Didn't watch the video, however, my daddy was in law enforcement "way back when" and he taught us that if a vehicle speeds out of control and nothing else works, drag the car on anything solid around--a rock-face on a mountainside, parked vehicles--whatever. Loss of life is far worse than damage to property.

I have a 2001 RAV4 since I purchased the car I have had a number of accidents due to acceleration. One accident my front end of the car finally stopped when I hit a pole. Four other incidents when I was backing up. The first time they told me it was the floor mats. I took off the floor mats and had four other accidents. I wore out the rug on the driver's side . That is proof enough that I did not use the mats. I called toyota and they told me there were no complaints about RAV 4s.

We don't own a Toyota but approx. 5 years ago when our Kia Sedona van was being serviced, we had a loaner of the same model and I experienced the same problem as that of Toyota owners. I reported the problem and although the service dept. did not seem to take me seriously, I soon after received a recall notice regarding some type of cable to the throddle which I believe needed to be encased in order to protect it from freezing and malfunctioning.Just some food for thought as a possible connection.

I, also, just watched the news on the runaway Toyotas. Is this problem with all models, all years? I didn't hear anyting about that.

I think it's disgraceful that ABC News and Charlie Gibson didn't take 30 seconds to point out to their viewers that the simple solution to a stuck accelerator is to put the car in neutral and then turn off the ignition?

As some have stated,
Step 1: turn ignition off.
Step 2: place car in neutral unless it's a manual trans, for this trans type leave it in gear.
Can't drive a car without power steering/brakes? Get yourself a horse and buggy, you don't need to be operating any type of powered equipment!

I've ben around cars for 60 years. My job was repairing mechanical and electronic office equipment. I have also rebuilt many home devices, rather than toss them out.
I wonder if the gas pedal and/or the linkage to the fuel system may be too heavy, and not return to idle when the drivers foot is removed from the pedal.
I've found parts in cars that would stick in a wrong position after a few months or years, but would only work better, if the part(s) were removed, cleaned, perhaps re-alligned and re-installed, would they work correctly.
I'77, I've been driving many models since I was 16. Check on IT.!!

I agree with several posters, I was watching the story the whole time saying "Just put it in Neutral, just put it in neutral, just put it in neutral." It's unacceptable that they couldn't say that.

And to the woman who said drag the car across a rock face or other cars? What are you, high? My god this country has some dumb citizens.

I have 2007 Toyota Yaris that has a check the engine light on for a yr some weeks it dosen't come on ,when it comes on the car dies, can turn key off turn it right back on and go on down the road. I have replaced 3 throttle bodies and the complete gas pedal. It accerates itself up still and still comes up with codes to replace these parts.

Someone suggested turning off the key: DON'T! You could wind up with your steering wheel locked. Better get to know your car before you wind up in an emergency.

P.S. to my previous comment: I had a car that accelerated and WOULD NOT TURN OFF. I put it in neutral and pulled to the side, THEN used both the handbrake and footbrake - and then turned off the key (again) till it choked and coughed and jerked before it finally quit.

the problem with the CHP guy was it was not his car. the dealer did not tell him about the differences between his car and the loaner, making it difficult to react in a panic situation (gee, guys, did you know there was no key to turn off, only a start button that you have to push for 3 seconds! Pretty hard to do when you are doing 100!) and the shift pattern was not the same either. Finally, the dealer put in the wrond floor mats, heavy duty jobs for the luxury SUV. Not too smart!

Contrary to all the other posts, I have had my 2002 Camry for over 6 years, have 137,000 miles on it and have replaced only front disk pads, an $80 A/C module, tires, filters, and wiper blades. I've used the floor mats from the beginning. NO problems. I would take the car anywhere, despite its miles -- taking a 12-hour trip tomorrow.

Fly by wire problem..very common on g.m cars.possible same aftermarket parts.

Put car in neutral. Coast to stop then turn off key

The engineers now should consider designing a car that can turn the engine off in a situation like this