Jammed throttle on Toyota Blamed for Car Becoming Airborne in Grayson

A jammed throttle on a 2010 Toyota Corolla is blamed for a vehicle becoming airborne in the Grayson Kroger parking lot Saturday night resulting in two cars having to be towed from the scene.

According to the police report from Gwinnett County Police, Neville Tate, of Loganville, backed his Toyota out of a parking space at Kroger and headed to the gas station to fill up. That was when the throttle stuck, causing the vehicle to accelerate out of his control. He attempted to steer the car away from a car already parked at the pump, jumping the curb in the process and launching the car into the air. It landed on top of the driver's side of an Oldsmobile parked in the Kroger parking lot. That vehicle was not occupied as the driver was working inside the store at the time.

Both vehicles had to be towed from the scene, but nobody was seriously injured. The driver of the vehicle that became airborne reportedly complained of pain to his hand, but refused treatment. Although he was determined to be the at fault driver, nobody was cited due to the fact that the accident took place on private property.

The 2010 Toyota Corollas were included in the 2.3 million vehicles recalled by Toyota in January 2010 because of reports of accelerators sticking. According to Autoblog, a class action lawsuit was filed against the company in 2009 following more than 2,000 complaints. Jammed accelerator pedals were blamed for accidents that resulted in 16 deaths and 243 injuries at that time.