The Hub 0 Posted March 11, 2006 Anyone just see the news? Some guy in England, travelling along in his Beemer claims his accelerator stuck at 130mph, I must remember that one next time the Rozzer's pull me over :lol: He ended up in a roundabout on the roof :roll: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bcstudent 0 Posted March 11, 2006 Why was he doing 130mph in the first place? Is he saying the throttle stuck open at 50mph and he just hung on until 130mph then crashed?! Yeah...riiiiight :) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andi 2,147,483,647 Posted March 11, 2006 I assume it was an Auto.. why not just knock it into Neutral? Do they have something stopping you from doing that when the gas is down? The bloke looked a right twit anyhow. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RW1 0 Posted March 11, 2006 Wasn't booked. Car fault. The throttle jammed wide open on an automatic. He applied the brakes to hold 70mph, phoned the AA. Then but as they faded, dialed 999 and got 4 cars & a helicopter and the speed slowly rose thro' to 130mph as the brakes completely faded. BMW stated afterwards, just turn off the ignition. I suppose in the heat of the moment, that didn't occur to him. . Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Stan 24v 0 Posted March 11, 2006 Turning off the ignition would have meant loss of steering and brakes so probably not an easy thing to do. I watch that yank sh*t when cops chase cars etc, and they ram them off the road. If our cops in their T5 Volvos did the same, we wouldnt even be talking about this!! Get some balls lads!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bcstudent 0 Posted March 11, 2006 He ended up in a roundabout on the roof So the four police cars and the helicopter were a lot of help then! Seriously though, what time of day did it happen? They did well to avoid a much bigger incident I guess. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
veeDuB_Rado 0 Posted March 11, 2006 Turning off the ignition would have meant loss of steering and brakes so probably not an easy thing to do. Brakes would still be there, as for steering, you could turn off and then turn half way ;) My throttle actually stuck on me once when i was blasting up a bypass once, luckily it came un-stuck about a second later. It's pretty scary that... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bcstudent 0 Posted March 12, 2006 Brakes would still be there They'd be 'there' but with no assistance. Have you ever tried to stop a car at speed with brakes devoid of servo-assistance? Not fun. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Supercharged Junkie 0 Posted March 12, 2006 Yep at the same problem in a Scirocco when i overtook a fecking slow car coming up to a roundabout when the throttle stuck open. Not a nice thing to happen. Turned out the throttle bodie butterfly had not been oiled for ages and stuck open :-( Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tom B 0 Posted March 12, 2006 I was a 318i auto. They don't even hit 130mph! According to Sky News, the cops couldn't catch him! I read this at work and laughed my ass off. God its a slow news day! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
veeDuB_Rado 0 Posted March 12, 2006 The Sun paper said he was doing 140! :roll: Yea right! :lol: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billinjah 0 Posted March 12, 2006 I was a 318i auto. were you? never knew that!? the guy was a tawt lets face it if he had his foot on the brake, his hand on the gear selector, his thumb on the auto box release and moved it to the letter N the car would slow down and he would have been able to get out and get to starbuck's much quicker, but then beemer drivers have difficulty with indicators so that was f**king impossible really! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
4stud 0 Posted March 12, 2006 :lol: My ol man used to have a model y Ford with a 2.8 capri motor in it. They weigh feck all so as you can imagine it went like stink! Anyway the pedals were really close together. He missed a turning once and went to jam the brakes on, he hit the throtle by accident and took off in a big cloud of smoke. He said it scared the crap outa him. Good job there was nothing in front. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dr_mat 0 Posted March 12, 2006 "just turn off the ignition" won't work - you have to put it in "P" first on an auto, there's usually an interlock to the ignition system. Ever tried putting an auto into "P" at 10 mph? Imagine doing it at 130 .. ! Design flaw, IMHO. There should always be a way to kill the engine, ffs. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SteveVPK 0 Posted March 12, 2006 Yep this has happened to me before as well, its pretty unnerving and takes a far few seconds to think how to stop the car but the article I read said it was stuck open for 30min before he crashed :roll: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jim 2 Posted March 12, 2006 So if he was on a long stretch of road, surely just turning off the ignition and allowing himself to coast to a slow stop would be just too difficult? Sorry but I call BS on this, definately... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dr_mat 0 Posted March 12, 2006 Depends on the model Jim ... If the ignition is interlocked you can't turn it off till the 'box is in "park"... You might be able to pull an important fuse or relay, but that would almost certainly result in locking up the wheels solid on an auto ... and it would certainly involve taking your eyes off the road .. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Toad 0 Posted March 12, 2006 I'm pretty sceptical about this gimp too really, i saw him on the news last night, you wouldn't just sit there on the phone crying would you? wouldn't you pull the hand brake on (RWD so no funky skidding just added braking effort) and start rubbing the side of the car down the armco to shave speed off? You'd have to be a bit of a halfwit to sit there while it worked it's way to 130mph surely? It must've taken him a minute or two to cook his brakes while he was on the phone, he could've done something slightly more constructive than call the spotty AA call centre worker in that time? In all honesty it was bloody dangerous, i'm amazed he never killed anyone. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dr_mat 0 Posted March 12, 2006 I'm pretty sceptical about how many people claim to have amazing technical foresight in emergencies. Till it happens to you, dude, you have no idea how you'll react! Personally I'd like to think I know enough about cars to figure *something* out, but most people don't! For the vast majority of the population a car is a complete mystery, most of them only know not to use diesel cos there's a sticker on the petrol flap ... ! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billinjah 0 Posted March 12, 2006 but you can put an auto into neutral when accelerating! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dr_mat 0 Posted March 12, 2006 True indeed.. Probably preferable to toast the engine with redline revs till you can stop. But then, the question is really: how clearly would you think about that if it happened to you? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
veeDuB_Rado 0 Posted March 12, 2006 Thing is we've had time to think about it in a safe situation, whereas he was actually there with it happening! What I'm not sure about is how he drove at stupid speeds for so long, surely there would've been a long or sharpish bend somewhere.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ben16v 0 Posted March 12, 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4796264.stm Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chubbybrown 0 Posted March 12, 2006 The guy ran out of road and Bmw wouldnt comment ! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RW1 0 Posted March 12, 2006 Bmw wouldnt comment ! They did in the Saturday 11th march Telegraph, page 3. Beeb don't pay enough......... To clarify the "turn the ignition off" it actually says.... quote the BMW spokeman, "Our advice would be to pull the gear lever into neutral or turn the ignition off". And then leave the key in the steering lock to maintain freedom of the steering. Bottom line if a trucker like this gets in this situation and can't slow it down, then the situation must have been a little hairy along the way. . Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
