general problems of the 2002 Toyota Echo

I shifted into reverse to back out of a driveway when the car suddenly accelerated on its own. It crossed the street and ran over a brick planter box, knocked down a crape myrtle tree and finally hit the neighbor's SUV. I applied the brakes to no avail and had no time to shift into neutral or turn off the ignition. After the accident, I checked the gas pedal to see if it was against the floor or if the floor mat was interfering with it, but found nothing wrong. The car was totaled and my back was injured.

My 2002 Toyota Echo on Nov. 16th 2010 while driving on the freeway in the county of los angeles CA. Went into reverse while still in drive. There was traffic ahead of me so I was only driving about 2 mph when it went into reverse while the automatic shift was still in drive. I went to put on the brake but the brakes did not work. I turned off the car and put on the hazards. Two minutes went by when I turned on the car and it went into drive. I then took it to the keyes Toyota in van nuys CA, and was told that they never heard of this before from any Toyota cars and that if they were even to look it would be completely at my expense. I sold the car for parts on 11/18/10.