[dalyduo]

Jim's point is absolutely correct about brakes going away quickly at speed. I was the one exhibiting brain fade. (eating crayons for sure) in recalling the old Audi unintended acceleration argument when it was demonstrated the motor couldn't overcome the brakes from rest and extrapolating it backwards incorrectly. I would still suspect she didn't use all her options (including braking) to stop the car before the rock filled stream did it for her... but we'll never know.

Rosso, I'd be suprised if your BMW didn't have fly by wire. Pretty sure my '03 has it too. They were early adopters of the technology. Here's an interesting headline from March 11, 2006 on that theme:

Malfunctioning BMW Traps Driver In Own Car At 130mph For 26 Minutes
telegraph.co.uk — A motorist was trapped in his car driving at almost 130mph for 60 miles after the accelerator jammed in his automatic BMW. He then traveled 60 miles in 26 minutes, passing through three counties.

Suspect many cars now have some form of data acquisition . There was an uproar a few years ago when rental agencies started checking the data and charging customers for car abuse and speeding. No idea which cars do and don't have it.

One of my favorite data stories was the M5 brought in for it's first service interval a couple of years ago and the service manager came out in a somewhat agitated state with data in hand wondering how a car with so few miles during its break-in period could have an average speed of use close to 100mph. What he didn't know was that car was the new pace car for Lime Rock Park.