Yikes! Jammed accelerator * 135mph.

[StraightSix]

Accelerator jam car hits 135mph
From the BBC News
11 March 2006

A motorist drove for 60 miles at speeds of 135mph after the accelerator on his BMW car jammed and his brakes failed. Kevin Nicolle, 26, was on the A1 near Thirsk in North Yorkshire when the car started to accelerate.

"I was in tears most of the time on the phone to the police - I really could see myself dying," he told the BBC.

He had to drive on the hard shoulder to avoid crashing but eventually lost control and hit a roundabout near Blyth, Notts, but escaped unhurt. Speaking to BBC Five Live about the incident on 5 March Mr Nicolle said: "I was travelling down the motorway and I came to traffic in front of me.

"I took my foot off the accelerator because it's automatic - but I wasn't slowing down at all.

"I hit the brakes. They were braking ok, they were keeping me at about 70mph.

"So I phoned up the police after I called the AA and they said straight away 'stick your hazard lights on and headlights on - we've got a helicopter en route to you'."

Police patrol cars were also sent but struggled to catch up with the BMW 318.

'Survived accident'

Mr Nicolle said: "Then the brakes started burning out - I could see smoke coming from the brakes."

He tried to put the car into neutral but the gears were jammed. Mr Nicolle was in constant contact with the police on a hands-free phone. As he approached Blyth he saw a sign for a roundabout.

"There was a load of cars parked waiting to go onto the roundabout, so I went on the inside on the hard shoulder to try to get around it.

"But doing that sort of speed there was no chance and I hit the roundabout head on.

"I remember the 999 lady saying 'he's crashed'.

"I survived the accident but I thought I was going to die in the fire."

But miraculously he walked away completely unhurt - and said he is now considering giving up driving for good. Mr Nicolle said the police took the car away for tests and BMW said they would carry out a full investigation.

BMW's UK media relations manager, Duncan Forrester, said: "I would certainly like to reassure anybody driving any BMW that we see this as really nothing more than a freak accident.

"We have absolutely no record of anything such as this happening in the past, hence the reason why we want to take a close look at it."

The R reg car (97/98) had 107,000 miles on the clock and had three months remaining on the MOT.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4796264.stm

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What do you think you would have done if you were in the same situation?

[wren]

i would have s*** my pants.

seriously though, i would have just shut off the ignition and taken a chance that way.

[Renelmac]

70 mph thats roughly 150 kph.... i guess id either shutoff ignition and take my chance, or sasandal ako sa railing habang inaapakan yung brakes tapos pag bumagal..talon nalang

[oldblue]

pray and find a soft spot.

[empy]

um, he couldn't have put the car in neutral? i can do that on my steptronic e46 even if the car is running...

oops, nm. didn't read that the gears were "jammed" hehe. if that's the case i'd shut off the ignition, put the key back in the 'on' position, then tried to steer with pawis steering to the shoulder.

[BlueBimmer]

naku e36 pala un

[niky]

Some cars won't let you shut off when you're in gear. And that's a good thing. Shut off in gear and everything locks up, you spin out, and you still crash.

There's another good reason why I don't like buying automatics.

[falken]

Shutting off the ignition's a bad idea, you'll spin out of control .

[ghosthunter]

i wonder why the guy never thought of turn off the ignition.

[roninblade]

hard to say what i would've done if i were in that situation. di naman ako expert sa handling ng car pero pwede ba ganito:

since mahaba naman ata yung highway na tinatakbuhan, i would line up my car para straight talaga yung takbo ng kotse. then turn off the ignition; then since nawala na yung acceleration and brakes, hit the hand brakes? gradually ba or hit it agad to max? would the car still go in an uncontrolled spin then?

the above just shows how unprepared i am pag nangyari sa akin yan. yikes. buti nalang di automatic kotse ko.

edit: ok, i overlooked the 135mph speed of the car. medyo mahirap nga gawan ng paraan.

[theveed]

Hindsight is 20/20, so don't judge.

135mph is around 216kph, so unless you're a professional highspeed driver, don't think any one of us can have the mindset of knowing what to do. Even if you're an F1 driver, you probably wouldn't know what you CAN do for sure to stop a 200kph vehicle safely when you have zero control on it.

It's not like it's easy to steer a car at 200kph in a public road either.

I guess if may superhuman calmness and clear-headedness ka, the best thing to do will be reach for the fuel pump fuse hehe.

Again, try doing that in a panic situation.

[gearspeed]

There's another good reason why I don't like buying automatics.

Me too I don't like buying automatic...

[StraightSix]

Excerpts from the Telegraph News
by Nick Britten

"My brakes were burning out and starting to fail - that's when the speed really started to build," he said. "I could see the speed building to 120mph or 130mph. I remember starting to shake and freeze up. I was really panicking and broke into tears. I couldn't help it because I thought I was definitely going to die.

"I was trying to slip the car into neutral but because the car was over-revving and red-lining I couldn't do it.

"I couldn't turn off the ignition because it would have disabled the power steering and made it even more dangerous. I was even shouting at the other drivers to get out of the way, I was getting hysterical. The traffic was getting heavier and I had to take drastic measures.

"I overtook someone on the verge outside the fast lane and police told me to get on to the hard shoulder. But I passed three or four slip roads and at one point I nearly T-boned someone trying to get on from the slip road.

"The woman operator told me the police were about half a mile behind me but they were finding it difficult to catch me.

"I told them to send an ambulance because I was going to die. I knew I was going to die.

Full Report from the Telegraph News.

[jim]

with that kind of experience it would be mind-TEARING and heart-STOPPING!!! he's lucky he survived. kung ako nasa situation nya, patay na ako.

maganda talaga manual tranny. you're in control with the gears and in case you get stuck in a gear sa manual, not stepping on the accelerator and braking will surely halt the car. kung yung accelerator naman ang ma-stuck, you can always force the stick to downshift kahit masira na ang gears. kung yung clutch naman ma-stuck, you can do clutchless or streamlined shifting. i love my manual ;)

[BlueBimmer]

to add to veed's advice, remove all fuses!

but E36 fuses are located under the hood beside the brake master assembly, hindi sa driverside dashboard hehehe

[wren]

to add to veed's advice, remove all fuses!

but E36 fuses are located under the hood beside the brake master assembly, hindi sa driverside dashboard hehehe

try doing that at 135 mph...

[theveed]

Hahaha, crawl out of the car, open hood while car in motion, unplug fuses...

Stunt man talaga hehe.

Dapat may parachute mga kotse hehe.

If you think about it, it must be scary if the Merc SLR has brake problems, electronic brakes sya + air dam brake...

[kiper]

hindi mangyayari sakin yan..

40kph arangkada na sakin un hehehe..

saka sa provincial hi-way philippine setting 100kph nakakatakot na..wakeke

[the_wildthing]

Ang solusyon dyan ay hilahin ang matting papunta sa iyo.

In hindsight mas mabuti pang mag red line ng naka-neutral.

[Flagg]

Dito, drive into a rice paddy. Doon? Dunno, parang puro sheep & grass lang nakita ko e London to Birmingham.

Sa bagay, u could only hit that speed on the Skyway so... mag-drifting ka nalang.