Wide open throttle

letaarnoldletaarnold Member Posts: 2
edited October 2015 in Ford
Yesterday I started my Ford F150 Supercab to leave my house. When I put it into Reverse it took off at wide open throttle. I had no brakes. I ended up across the street down an embankment and crashed into a tree. It happened so fast that I had no time to even think. What could have caused that to happen?
Thanks,
Leta
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Comments

  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Hard to say what might have happened. That would be a job for a professional forensics person to study the car.

    Sorry to hear about this. Must have been pretty scary.

    I hope you won't take any offense, but since you were backing up, it is possible that you got the brake and throttle confused. Backing up is when the vast majority of unintended acceleration accidents happen, This is because our bodies are often twisted around and we lose orientation to the pedals.

    Now if neither foot was ON the pedals, that would be something else. But if you were "braking", maybe you weren't.

    However, since an accident was involved, I'd have the truck looked at to see if perhaps something broke in the throttle linkage, like a return spring. But if you can get in the truck and it starts and runs normally and the gas pedal feels normal, then you might have to consider driver error. You wouldn't be the first by a long shot.

  • letaarnoldletaarnold Member Posts: 2
    No sorry. I always put my right foot on the brake before I ever put it into reverse and I don't twist around to back up. I look to see if there is traffic coming and I use my side mirrors to back out with.

    No offense taken. I know for a fact my foot was on the brakes. I left a long black mark down my driveway because I had the brakes on trying to stop it.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    It's also possible to apply brake and gas at the same time. But in any event, it would be important to examine the truck as it sits. If throttle and brake are working perfectly, that leans toward driver error; but if the throttle goes to the floor again, or if the throttle is found to be jammed after the wreck, then you have some basis for it being a defect or malfunction for some reason.

    Also, the engine can't defeat the brakes--the truck should have held even with open throttle--so then you'd have to assume both a throttle and brake defect simultaneously occurring. And if you re-start the truck and the throttle and brakes are normal again, you have nothing to go on for assuming a defect.

    You can see how complicated this gets.
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