IllustrationOn Thursday [XXX] I left San Marcos, CA and drove north to meet with my future father-in-law who lives in Shady Canyon, located in Irvine, CA. My car, a 2018 Honda Civic Type R, performed normally on the way to his house, without any warning lamps, messages, etc shown. The tires had regular pressure and all maintenance on the ve…
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On Thursday [XXX] I left San Marcos, CA and drove north to meet with my future father-in-law who lives in Shady Canyon, located in Irvine, CA. My car, a 2018 Honda Civic Type R, performed normally on the way to his house, without any warning lamps, messages, etc shown. The tires had regular pressure and all maintenance on the vehicle was current. Upon leaving my friend's house, I drove 1/4 mile down the road and stopped at a 3way stop sign before turning left through a gate which has an electronic arm--once a vehicle is sensed, the arm is raised and the vehicle continues forward. As I proceeded to the gate, the car accelerated, the steering froze, and I could not steer the car away from the oncoming gate. I slammed on the brakes and the brakes were non responsive although I applied immediate, hard pressure on the pedal. This is a performance car with very strong brakes capable of stopping it in a very short distance. Within a split second, my right front bumper slammed into a post right of the gate, and both front air bags and the side airbags deployed, and vehicle's momentum was stopped. I was unhurt other than a small scratch on my finger. Within minutes, the Community Security and Irvine police responded, and I told them what had happened: The steering froze and the brakes were unresponsive which led to this accident. The Police Officer confirmed from the accident scene that speed was not involved in this incident. My car was towed to a salvage yard (CoPart) affiliated with my insurance company, USAA. I asked the USAA Customer Agent if they could check the Electronic Data Recorder (EDR) on my vehicle, to learn what had occurred in the moments up to the incident. They referred me to Honda USA whom I called on June 22, 2026. However, Honda did not call me for 17 days, and they stated that they could not check the EDR and I should have hired an Inspector to do this. During this time, the car was declared a loss. So, the accident cause is unknown. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT