Apparently everybody is jumping on the "not me!" bandwagon:
'I'm innocent', says man jailed for Toyota crash
The 1996 Camry in this article is neither throttle-by-wire or brake-by-wire. It cannot overpower the brakes (and I'm interested to see if there are skidmarks--in a FWD car, the rear brakes should leave skidmarks even in a runaway situation.)
One of the major car magazines took several cars to 100 mph and did "runaway car" braking tests--emergency braking with the accelerator firmly planted. In every case, they were able to "easily" bring the cars to a halt--some only a hundred feet further than a normal panic stop. Even a 500+ hp Roush Mustang was brought to a halt--though it took over 900 feet.
The cop who crashed his Toyota was damning evidence in the media's eyes. After all, they're trained to handle these situations, right? But recently a highway patrol officer in Orange County swerved to miss a stove in lanes and planted his cruiser under the trailer of the big rig in the next lane. Both vehicles then slid into the wall and burst into flame, killing the cop. People are dumb, panicky animals, even if they're "trained" not to be, and there's no telling whether he panicked.