I heard on the radio that Lexus and Toyota (I think) were doing a massive recall of cars due to this issue, the accelerator sticking and causing wrecks. Talking about millions of cars being recalled. I heard it was the carpeting too, likely this officer's family's crash had something to do with the investigation and recall, I would imagine.

He was going 120 because he couldn't slow the car down as the accelerator stuck.

Maybe the time was too short when it happened, maybe if he had had more freeway before it ended and the curve had not come up so quickly, he would have had time to respond. Maybe he didn't have time to do the procedures you mentioned, maybe he panicked, we will never know, but what a horrible tragedy for his family.