U.S. auto-safety regulators upgraded their inquiry into Bayerische Motoren Werke AG’s 7 Series cars that may roll away when parked as they probe transmission defects in an electronic access and ignition system.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Tuesday on its website that it’s intensifying an investigation it opened in August of about 120,000 vehicles to an engineering analysis, which can lead to vehicle recalls.

Some drivers said their 7 Series cars from model years 2002 to 2008 rolled away when they thought the transmissions were in park.

The regulator, in the Web posting, said it found 14 crashes and five injuries in data BMW provided and two more reports of crashes from rollaway cars in its database.

“BMW is fully cooperating with NHTSA on the engineering analysis,” Dave Butchko, a U.S. spokesman for Munich-based BMW, said in an e-mail. 

(Bloomberg)