Automatic Transmission problems of the 2003 Honda Element

My son was driving our 2003 Honda Element to his internship as he has done many times. As he began up a hill and around a curve that turns sharply to the left, he heard a loud crack. The car veered off of the road slightly to the right, less than an inch dropoff. When he tried to steer the car to the left, the steering wheel would not move the car. As the curve in the road began to end, the car moved quickly to the left but still would not respond to the steering wheel. It ran off the road to the left and went into a ditch about 18 inches deep. Then, apparently the right wheel bent up under the car. The wheel broke in two, as did the rotor. The wheel then dug into the pavement and cut a groove into the pavement about 8 feet long. Apparently this rapid slowing down of the right side, coupled with the continued movement of the left side of the car, projected the car out of the ditch and caused it to roll over twice and land on its roof. The airbags never deployed. My son was able to disengage the seatbelt and lower himself down onto the roof and get out of the shattered driver side window. He was uninjured except for some small shards of glass in his right hand and forearm. When we looked at the underside of the car, we saw that the right front axle was snapped in two at the transmission. Both the wheel and the rotor were broken in half. The car was declared "totaled. " my concern is that whatever snapped or cracked initially rendered the car unsteerable. I would like an investigation that might perhaps prevent such a thing happening to anyone else.

On the morning of October 22, 2005 I started my 2003 Honda Element which was parked in my driveway. I quickly remembered that I wanted an item out of the garage and stepped out of the vehicle. I had not touched the automatic gear shift and the e/r brake was on. The vehicle immediately went into reverse, down the driveway, across the street, the open door struck the neighbors mail box, vehicle proceeded up the neighbors drive way striking their parked vehicle, pushing it 2 fee up their driveway. Then the vehicle suddenly went into drive, came back down the neighbors driveway, across the street, up my driveway, into my garage striking items in the rear of the garage before stopping. I reached in to shut the car off then ran into the house. When my husband came out to the garage and got into the vehicle he said that the car was in park and the e/r break was on. There was no damage to the neighbors vehicle and approx $3500 damage to the Honda Element. I believe the transmission/gear box failed and the e/b failed resulting in injury and damage. Vehicle is being repaired at body shop and I have notified Honda and will have them check out when repairs completed.

2003 Element rolled backwards while vehicle was in reverse and keys in his hands. ** answer required***.