This is Russ, as I sat in the hospital for a couple days, I replayed everything in my head hundreds of times, things that I should have noticed as a warning, and what I could have done differently.

I’ve seen lots of comments so I’ll address a few of them, not being defensive at all.

In a normal car throttle sticking at 2200 RPM’s is not the end of the world, in my car that’s 900 ft/lbs of torque. I should have realized the load that was putting on the brakes. Didn’t cross my mind at the time. FYI: It had double springs on the throttle.

In a normal car, I could have pulled emergency brake, I even got a quote at Good Guy’s Del Mar for an electronic e-brake & bigger brakes. Hindsight’s 20-20, I was just gonna trailer it to a few shows & not drive it much till I could do that.

Why didn’t I downshift? Car had a B&M ratchet shifter, once I shifted up thru the gears you can’t downshift till you put it in park. So much going on in those last few seconds, forgot to downshift it after putting it in park, but it was probably too late to have had a big reduction in speed.

As far as I know, driver of van was not seriously injured. Beauty of a modern car with crumple zones, self tightening seat belts & air bags.

Car had liability coverage but no collision, I was still in the process of getting stated value insurance.

Dumba$$ owner/driver replied on Youtube:

To me, it is understandable that most laypersons don't understand the physics of friction brakes.
What is surprising is that so many "car guys" don't either - like the two seen in this car.

Brakes don't stop a car by "grabbing the rotor/drum to slow it down".

Friction brakes function by converting the kinetic energy of the vehicle mass in motion into heat energy in the hard parts, via friction...
...and then dispersing that heat energy into the surrounding air.

No matter the size/age/quality of the brakes, if you keep putting more heat into the hard parts without letting them disperse that heat into the surrounding air, the system will quit functioning.

Put the photo shoot on hold while you resolve the sticking throttle? Nope.
Well then.. kick the car into neutral periodically to quit accelerating? Nope.
Okay, so perhaps ponder exactly why you are smelling the brakes? Nope.

For added entertainment, the driver thinks that throwing the trans into Park is going to have a significant effect at the speed (note the brrrrrrrrrrrr of the parking pawl as it ineffectively grinds down).

Yep, the after-action reviewer thinks shoulder harnesses should have been used (um, how about you don't crash the car in the first place?)...
...and that they should have had a hand brake (to use an alternate method to add more heat into a overheated braking system).

You really think most do not understand one of the most simple and basic brake systems?

We don't really know if the pedal went to the floor, or it just didn't give the pedal feel, and the stopping result the guy was expecting, and hoping for.

Its pretty easy to say what we think would do in that situation, being an arm chair race car driver about to crash is quite different then sitting in the driver seat at that critical time. What we think we might do may not be what really happens. Talk is cheap. Quite second guessing the guy.

You know what we do know, based on his own words? That he knew he had a dangerous problem, and chose to drive on a public roadway anyway.

Any non-moron would've not driven the car until fixing the problem.

NAILED IT
Wonder if moron's riding the brakes are related to global warming LOL

For anyone else questioning the overheating of brakes affecting their ability to function might ask why they have runaway truck ramps on the major roads through mountainous terrain