Reported on TV this morning about a man travelling on the motorway in a BMW. Apparently his accelerator stuck down and he burned out his brakes trying to stop. He eventually reached 130 mph and flipped over when he got to a roundabout.

Apparently he's OK and says he will buy another BMW cos he reckoned his number would have come up if he'd been in any other car.

However, the point of this post is that: He said he didn't want to turn the ignition off since he would lose steering capability. Apparently, he could have turned it almost off (to the electrics stage I guess, i.e cutting out the engine but not the steering.) Being a mine of useless information, I'll certainly log that one in, just in case.

Can't find a link, sorry.

Mo

Why didn't he just knock it into neutral when the throttle stuck ? Sounds like a load of b.s. to me !

I must admit that that is something that does concern me slightly about the Furby because of the electronic throttle should a bug in the system ever develop, although I would have thought that there should be fault protection systems in place?

remember that lorry driver that said the same thing, turned out to be him just trying it on.

Ok I understand why he might not have wanted to turn off the engine, but I would have given it a go just to cut the power for awhile. Maybe it would not knock out of gear under full charge (dont know enough about autoboxes to comment) but I would have thought it was possible.

He eventually reached 130, which tells me he had alot of time to think about knocking it out of gear, cutting the power and coasting to the side of the road.

Why do people just keep the brakes on? It could not have happened that quickly that he could not have used a little common sense for bob's sake!

I must admit that that is something that does concern me slightly about the Furby because of the electronic throttle should a bug in the system ever develop, although I would have thought that there should be fault protection systems in place?

IIRC the throttle and brake cant be used at the sametime, so I would guess that is the backup.

Though if both fail your not really scr*wed as it has a clutch!

Why do people just keep the brakes on? It could not have happened that quickly that he could not have used a little common sense for bob's sake!

Re "happened that quickly". They said it was some 26 mins until he progressively reached that speed. It does sound a bit numpty, even to me, but who knows what you think in such a circumstance? They said he had managed to contact the police on his mobile and kept the line open, and seemingly was not advised on what best to do.

Mo

Switching the engine off, you will loose power steering and servo assistance to the brakes making control more difficult. I would have tried selecting neutral, the engine will be reving its nuts off on the limiter but you should come to a controlled stop.

It sounded unlikely to me too when I heard it this morning.

The BBC ste now says 135 mph, it was only 130 on the radio this morning. It'll be 140 on ITN by this evening...

Apparently Police vehicles struggled to catch up with it -They want to get some better cars then!

As has been suggested, why didn't he just shift it down into a lower gear?

On an older auto you could hold it in a low gear and use that to 'shift' manually. If you could slam it into 'park' you might have destroyed the transmission but at least you'd have stopped.

I know some auto boxes won't let you over-rev, but there must be some way to force a gear-change, surely? If not, I think I'd attempt to engineer a system to do so if I had one....

Apparently he's OK and says he will buy another BMW cos he reckoned his number would have come up if he'd been in any other car.

How did he decide that?

If the accelerator 'sticks' and you can't downshift or disengage the power, I think I'd get something else!

I guess the bloke is fairly shaken up though...

How did he decide that?

If the accelerator 'sticks' and you can't downshift or disengage the power' date=' I think I'd get something else!

I guess the bloke is fairly shaken up though...[/quote']

I think SHOOK more than shaken, it still sounds like b.s. and would you honestly consider another BMW?

I know some auto boxes won't let you over-rev, but there must be some way to force a gear-change, surely?

Not on some of them...not 100% sure on BMWs though.

That said, he obviously applied the brakes, and he would've been able to do so for long enough to move the stick in neutral. From there would just be a matter of finding a nice stretch of armco or soft verge to assist in the stopping process...

Rob.

Switching the engine off, you will loose power steering and servo assistance to the brakes making control more difficult. I would have tried selecting neutral, the engine will be reving its nuts off on the limiter but you should come to a controlled stop.

too true but I was thinking along the lines of "unable to knock out of gear due to being on full charge" cut the power for a brief moment, know out of gear and restart, which will allow you to come to a controlled stop.

Though I guess unless I've been there myself I cant comment of what is going through your mind for 26 minute!

Me think he should not be driving!

From there would just be a matter of finding a nice stretch of armco or soft verge to assist in the stopping process...

You'd have thought so, although it would have to be a fairly big verge with no approaching bridges!

really, wouldn't driving onto the grass verge (if practical), losing a bit speed, then turning the ignition off and coasting/sliding to a halt have been the better option?

I'd like to think that having had the problem for 26 minutes I'd come up with a better idea than just crashing into a roundabout.

Surely applying full braking it would stop/stall the car? Braking slows the car better than an engine accelerates it ... Doesnt it?

26 mins is a hell of a long time... switch off engine and coast with brakes and hand brake....

Weird story all the same...

not really, the 1.3 metro I had ages ago could be moved even if the brakes are on, albeit it very slowly and would make alot of noise.

I'm guessing at the speed it would quite quicky kill the brakes.

It doesn't really make sense. I am glad the guy survived unscathed without any one else being injured. Poor guy is going to get in the ear for quite some time.

Did this car have cruise control?

My two pence worth:

If it were me soon as a realized the accelerator was stuck down and changing gears in the auto box failed I would have chosen a quiet straight piece of road, applied the brakes sharply to polish of as much speed as possible and then switch off the engine. I hopefully would then coast to a stop. If not side swiping the barriers or verge would help. Yes I would have lost the power steering and brake servo by this time although there would be some degree of control at a lower speed. Perhaps this option was deemed too unsafe as having procrastinated for too long and now reaching 130 mph with burnt out brakes. There must have been some opportunity to find a quiet part of the road given that he travelled 60+ miles at speeds upto 130mph.

Iain

It will be interesting to here what BMW have to say when they examine the car

after 26 mins I would have jumped out the door!! :eek: :eek::(

Just seen him on the news !

IMHO he should be banned instantly just because of his hair!! :eek:

Oh! and his obvious lack of synapses !

He sounded a right drip on the radio.

They should nab him now for speeding and talking on a mobile whilst driving.

There was a time when my clutch stuck. I was really worried, but it turns out my new mats were getting in the way.

I've just listened to that.

What was that 'racing driver' (can't remember ther name) on about when she said the steering locks up when you turn the engine off? As anyone who's ever steered a car whilst being towed will know.....

NO, IT DOESN'T!

Obviously if you turn the key to 'lock' steering lock would engage, but that would be very foolish

The steering lock should only engage when the keys are removed.

the whole story sounds like a load fo bull..

if manual depress clutch

if auto push into neutral

if by some miracle this doesnt work turn eng off..

if this doesnt work.. run car down n/s barriers on hard shoulder then apply brakes - drag from barriers + brakes will slow it down.