NHTSA Complaint #11504968 — 2015 BMW 328I

Reporting very dangerous sudden unintended acceleration of 2015 BMW 328i: When about to back out of a parking space in a parking garage, I pressed the brakes and turned on the ignition switch. After looking around to ensure no cars or people were near the car, I put the gear shift in reverse, turned my whole head entirely over my right shoulder to look through the back windshield and, seeing nothing behind me, began to slowly lift my foot from the brake to reverse out of the parking space. I turned the steering wheel towards the left and the back of the car went to the left. The bumper gently tapped a white column that had been out of sight all the way further over my right shoulder. I gently pressed on the brake, and when I switched the gear shift into drive, the car suddenly and explosively accelerated forward extremely fast and sped out of control. I pressed the brakes to stop the car, which did nothing, and the car slammed into cement wall so hard that it sounded like an explosion and the air bags deployed. I hit my mouth/face/head on the air bag and got whiplash from the sudden stop. When I got out of the car, a couple who’d heard the explosion drove by and asked if I was ok. After a few moments I reached into the car to turn off ignition switch. This event resulted in very serious damage to the car, which was totaled, and I received medical injuries. This incident was reported to my automobile insurance company and to North America BMW, who has escalated the report to higher levels due to the seriousness of the incident, and will be doing investigations this week. The accelerator pedal or gear box dangerously and seriously malfunctioned, and the car is available for inspection upon request. My safety was seriously at risk as I have headaches and whiplash symptoms. If there were no wall there, or if there had been people or cars anywhere in front of the car, they would have been killed and smashed because the car suddenly accelerated so quickly.