I was a few blocks from work in my 1997 Toyota Previa with my daughter. We started up a steep hill when at the crest my van suddenly accelerated to 50 mph and increasing. I stood on the brake but it had no effect at all. Then I tried to shift into park. I succeeded only in shifting into reverse which sent us careening backward from where I had come. There had been only one other car on the street because of the lateness of the hour and it was clear that on my present course, I would hit it dead on. I moved over onto the curb where there was about a foot of snow. Even so, I raked his passenger side and my driver's side. I moved further over onto the yards, took out a mailbox and chose to go up a steep incline with lots of snow. The snow slowed the van down, and my daughter stood up and forced the shift stick into park. We stopped. Behind us were dense trees. If we had not stopped, we would surely have been killed. I had experienced unexplained acceleration previously, but was always able to brake and stop. Several times before I had asked the Toyota service to please fix this defect. They said they couldn't tell what was wrong if anything and could not fix it. The insurance "totaled" my van without even having the causes checked.

- Madison, WI, USA