March 10, 2006
TROUBLE AHEAD, TROUBLE BEHIND:
The accelerator has jammed, the brakes have burned out and I'm trapped in my BMW doing 130mph (Nick Britten, 11/03/2006, Daily Telegraph)
A motorist was trapped in his car driving at almost 130mph for 60 miles after the accelerator jammed.Kevin Nicolle, 25, was unable to stop the automatic BMW going at top speed after the malfunction on the A1.
His terrifying journey, which was followed by four police cars and a helicopter, ended when he smashed the car into a roundabout, flipping it on its roof.
Amazingly, the former lorry driver walked away from the accident uninjured.
The cop who pulled me over in Scurry County, TX wouldn't buy the jammed gas pedal excuse. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 10, 2006 9:19 PM
Couldn't turn off the ignition, eh?
Posted by: jdkelly at March 10, 2006 9:29 PMNice Grateful Dead reference!
Posted by: Ed Driscoll at March 10, 2006 9:43 PMI wonder if they'll find that this is a case of attempted murder? Sabotage of the vehicle, crazy glue on the base of the accelerator or something.
This kind of fault dosen't seem the kind of thing an expensive modern car would have.
Posted by: Amos at March 10, 2006 9:52 PMAmos:
I'm not that surprised. These cars are rolling computer networks. I've had my transmission disengage several times while accelerating due to software issues. All it takes sometimes is a little scratch on a fiber optic cable and all heck can break loose.
Posted by: Rick T. at March 10, 2006 10:45 PMNot just the ignition. He couldn't shift into neutral, either?
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at March 11, 2006 12:14 AMA few years ago, a woman was killed on Cape Cod when her pet turtle crawled beneath the brake pedal and prevented her from depressing it at the next intersection.
Posted by: Bob Hawkins at March 11, 2006 9:23 AMA few years ago, in NC (on I-85), a woman had the same experience - the state police figured out what was going on and followed (chased) her for probably 80 miles before she went into the median. She wasn't really hurt, either.
Neutral didn't work in her case.
Weird story about the turtle.
OJ - your mistake was stopping.
Posted by: jim hamlen at March 11, 2006 10:49 AMCan't shift to neurtral or shut it off? I think you've given me another reason to stick to with my '82 Datsun pickup.
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at March 11, 2006 12:50 PMThey're raising the speed limit in West Texas to 80 mph on the Interstates, OJ. Too bad Scurry County still doesn't have one...
Posted by: John at March 11, 2006 12:57 PMI was going 100. He gave me a warning for 85. Just wanted to make sure the car wasn't stolen....
Posted by: oj at March 11, 2006 1:03 PMWow, he's a lot nicer than the Connecticut cop who gave me a ticket for going 72. Just wanted to make sure the state revenue was high ...
Posted by: pj at March 11, 2006 10:04 PM