NHTSA complaint: 2023 TOYOTA VENZA — FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
My wife owns this Toyota Venza. On October 9, 2024, I took the vehicle to the dealership for maintenance and all regular checkups passed. No sensor lights nor problem lights were on during the incident. On October 16, 2024 my wife was parking in a spot to pick up the mail in our community's mailbox. She pressed the brake and tried to park the vehicle when suddenly the motor accelerated over the parking lines on its own to a small hill continuously. My wife tried to press the brake multiple times with no success and the motor continued accelerating on its own. My wife turned the steering wheel to the right to avoid running into the hill or flipping the vehicle over. Once turned, the vehicle continued accelerating crossing over a neighborhood street and finally crashing into a neighbor's wall. Once it crashed the wall, all air bags were deployed and the vehicle rebounded back into the street where my wife was eventually able to shift it into parking. Once parked, the vehicle wouldn't start or move at all. Thankfully, there were no fatalities but my wife crashed into a wall and had to be taken to the hospital to be treated for the bruises in her legs and body from the air bag impact. Additionally, our community is gated and thankfully there is little traffic but this problem in a main road or highway could easily injure or kill people. We reported the accident to the local police and filed a report with them. We also notified insurance of the crash and have started a repair
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — Office of Defects Investigation