That audio is terrifying knowing that they did in fact die. Could it be that the accellerator got stuck just prior and the car rapidly accelerated. I mean the call was so short and they covered a half a mile in almost no time.

Other than panicking, I don't see why the car couldn't have been put in neutral. There's a specific reason there is no shift lockout from drive to neutral. Unfortunately, there is no run off at the end of the freeway and the car pretty much obliterated itself. What's even more sad is that Mar's uncles are CHP and they knew the guy and his family really well.

Everything changes in a panic situation. I wish we had know definitively if he attempted to throw it in neutral or park. The auto tranny probably wouldn't let him select a lower gear and the brakes would be ineffective considering the amount of inertia already carried by the vehicle especially being fully loaded.

I'm going to install additional grommets on my bimmer floor mats cause this has happened to e46's as well.