NHTSA Complaint #11553456 — 2018 TOYOTA CAMRY

I am writing this letter because, on August 1, 2023, my wife, and I, were involved in an accident with our 2018 Toyota Camry, which may have been due to SUDDEN UNINTENDED ACCELERATION, a defect which affected Camry owners for over 10 years, and is still happening. Most of these accidents occurred when the driver was pulling slowly into a parking space and their car suddenly accelerated strongly and couldn’t be stopped by hitting the brakes. The car only stopped when it hit a solid object. This often resulted in serious injuries, even death. On August 1, my wife was driving the Camry (I was in the front passenger seat) and she was in the process of slowly pulling into a parking space at Parkside Town Commons in Cary, with her foot on the brake. Without warning, the car suddenly accelerated and she was unable to stop it by hard braking. The car jumped the curb in front of it and climbed a landscaped incline, only stopping when it crashed into a wrought iron fence in front if it. There were no vehicle warning messages prior to the accident. Fortunately, no one was injured, but the Camry had over $6,000 in damages and the fence was bent badly where the car hit it. We called the Cary Police and a Police Report was made. No tickets were issued by the Cary Police. Our Toyota dealer referred us to a higher level Toyota office that deals with special vehicle problems, which we called. We reported the accident, they said it would be reviewed. We have had no response from theToyota higher level office since. Though the damage was repaired, we are very worried that if our Camry has a SUDDEN UNINTENDED ACCELERATION defect, we could suffer another such accident anytime. It is very critical to have our vehicle inspected for such a flaw, whether in electronics, the throttle, brakes, or anything else. As this problem is an important safety issue, we feel the need to have it checked out. Would appreciate your assistance.