NHTSA Complaint #10292643 — 2003 TOYOTA COROLLA

I WAS DRIVING ON AN INTERSTATE HIGHWAY WITH MY CRUISE CONTROL ENGAGED AND MY CAR BEGAN TO ACCELERATE BEYOND THE SPEED THAT I HAD SET. I DISENGAGED THE CRUISE CONTROL BUT THAT DID NOT SLOW THE CAR DOWN. NEXT, I TRIED BRAKING, WHICH SLOWED THE CAR DOWN A LITTLE, THOUGH I NEEDED TO USE AN UNUSUALLY LARGE AMOUNT OF FORCE TO PRESS THE BRAKE PEDAL DOWN. ONCE I RELEASED THE BRAKE, THE CAR BEGAN TO SPEED UP AGAIN. I MADE REPEATED ATTEMPTS TO BRAKE BUT, EVENTUALLY, THE BRAKE PEDAL LOCKED UP. AT THIS POINT, I PUT THE CAR INTO NEUTRAL AND THE ENGINE REVVED (I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE MAXIMUM RPM WAS, BUT I KNOW IT WAS WELL ABOVE NORMAL DRIVING RPM). I PULLED OFF ONTO THE SHOULDER AND TURNED THE CAR OFF. I TRIED TURNING THE IGNITION ON (MY FOOT WAS NOT ON THE ACCELERATOR PEDAL) BUT THE ENGINE REVVED UP SO I IMMEDIATELY TURNED THE CAR OFF. OVER THE NEXT 30 MINUTES, I TRIED TURNING THE CAR ON A FEW MORE TIMES WITH THE SAME RESULT. AFTER I HAD BEEN WAITING FOR 1-1.5 HOURS, A TOW TRUCK ARRIVED. THE DRIVER TURNED THE IGNITION ON AND THE CAR STARTED NORMALLY; SOMEHOW THE PROBLEM HAD RESOLVED ITSELF SO WE WERE UNABLE TO DETERMINE THE CAUSE. *TR