Safe Speed Forums

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

What complete and utter twaddle! Listen to this guy on the BBC interview...

He has no convincing answer to why he simply didn't turn off the ignition, which is the FIRST thing any competent person would do if the accelerator jammed.
He said he would have 'lost everything' if he'd turned off the ignition - what rot! He'd have lost power steering - like he really needs that while doing 70mph! He'd have lost some of his brakes' power - so better to carry on with the accelerator on full until the brakes burn out?

There's obviously something behind all of this - he's not telling the truth. Accelerator pedals don't just 'stick down', and nobody would leave the engine turned on under such circumstances anyway.

The laughable part is that the whole media believe this fool!

Same in the Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... w_11032006

The accelerator has jammed, the brakes have burned out and I'm trapped in my BMW doing 130mph
By Nick Britten
(Filed: 11/03/2006)

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 whole thing was just a blur," he said. "I can't get it out of my head. I was terrified, hysterical and crying.

"Every time I close my eyes I remember it.

"It's a miracle I didn't collide with another vehicle or cause a pile-up, but I had a lot of close shaves with lorries and cars and swerved about trying to avoid them."

Mr Nicolle was driving back from friends in Newcastle to his home in Southsea, Hants, last Sunday, when the accelerator on his automatic BMW 318 jammed at Catterick, near junction 53 of the A1.

He then travelled 60 miles in 26 minutes, passing through three counties.



"I had been driving for quite a while when I realised the accelerator pedal was stuck down," he said. "I had gone into the fast lane and I couldn't get the pedal off the floor. I used my hands-free phone and tried the AA to ask them what to do.

"At that point I wasn't panicking because I jammed my foot on the brake and that was keeping the speed to a steady 70mph.

"I told the AA I couldn't slow down. I thought they might be able to give me some advice but they told me to hang up straight away and phone the police. I dialled 999 and spoke to a woman and by this time I was starting to panic because the speed of the car had increased to 100mph."

Police alerted a helicopter and four traffic cars set off to try to catch him as Mr Nicolle kept up a running commentary, all the time flashing his lights and sounding his horn to warn other motorists.

"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.

"Then I saw a sign saying it was 800 yards to a round-about. There was a queue of cars and I swerved round them then I tried to go round the roundabout itself.

"I didn't deliberately try to crash the car to stop myself. I remember saying to the fireman, 'Don't cut my car, you'll damage it' but they were saying, 'Don't worry about that mate, it's written off'. I'd buy another BMW because, although there was a problem, it saved my life in that crash."

Mr Nicolle overturned the car at the Blyth roundabout near Worksop. Nottinghamshire police confirmed his version of events.

A spokesman said: "Kevin was monitored doing in excess of 100mph and is lucky to have walked away with minor injuries.

"He phoned 999 to say that his brakes weren't working and was terrified for his life."

The racing green R-reg car, which Mr Nicolle had had for a year, has been examined by police and he has been told he will not face prosecution.

A spokesman for BMW, which wants to examine the wrecked car, said: "We are unaware of any issues of that nature with that particular model."

===================================

I think I believe it. The bit I don't believe is that no one told him to turn off the ignition. That's really rather odd.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Have you ever tried to drive a modern car with the power steering disabled? It's next to impossible, and I wouldn't even consider turning off the engine at 70mph plus. Ditto for the brake servo, once you've got no power, you'll find it VERY difficult to stop.

IMO it would have been infinitely more dangerous for this gentleman to have turned his engine off than for him to continue on.

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Carl Prescott

...not to mention that, with most cars, turning the ignition off activates the steering lock

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Only when ideology, prejudice and dogma are set aside does the truth emerge - Kepler

Yes, I've tried to drive a modern car with the power steering turned off. What would he need to do exactly when slowing down as the engine was turned off? Turn left suddenly?
Utter rubbish.
If you turn the engine off, you start to slow down...
If you leave the engine ON and the accelerator is jammed on full, you are going to DIE.
If you turn the engine off, even without the brake servos, you can still press as hard as you can on the brake pedal and get about 30% of the braking power you would normally have.

Therefore you would be able to stop in about 3 times the normal distance.

This story is complete and utter rubbish- he drove for 26 minutes? Bollocks!

Not in the last 15 or 20 years. You have to remove the key before the steering lock comes on.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Turning the ignition off would NOT disable power steering. Power steering runs on a crank driven pump, and while the engine turns the pump keeps working. During deceleration the wheels would have continued to drive the engine and the power steering pump.

And anyway the law states that steer by wire is illegal and all vehicles have a system of mechanical steering. Yes, it might go a bit heavy, but no it wouldn't stop you from steering the car.

Does anyone really think that a power steering belt failure would make you crash?

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Same here and like the days before PAS, the steering gets lighter with speed, at 70+ it would have been a doddle to steer, at 20 it would be heavy but not impossible.

As for the brakes, I assume they are servo assisted, in which case they would work perfectly well, just need a bit more pressure on the pedal. Then you have the handbrake.

And, look at the guy.

Does he look like a 6st weakling?



Yes, I should think so before he does some harm to someone else. 1st rate plonker IMO!

Exactly. The driver's story is full of holes. Listen to the interview and you'll see even he knows it doesn't make any sense. How could leaving the engine turned on possibly be better than turning it off? Why couldn't he get the car out of gear? So the accelerator stuck down, AND the car wouldn't change out of gear? Very likely... (NOT!)

Even if it did you have the acessory position which will kill the engine.



This can't be true, I thought speeding was an absolute offence?

It has been said in other articles that the car is an automatic. I'm not so knowledgeable with these so I don't know what would happen if one was knocked out of drive and coasted with the engine off.

As for the brakes, there is a small pressure reservoir which will gives full braking power for a few pumps after the engine stops turning.

erm, without the brake servo you still have 100% braking power, and you can still stop in the normal distance. The only difference is that you have to press the pedal a lot harder for the same effect.

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Only when ideology, prejudice and dogma are set aside does the truth emerge - Kepler

Taking it out of gear isn't the best idea anyway (although a great deal better than driving at unsafe speeds). Leave it in gear. Turn off the ignition. Coast to a stop. If you need a bit more to find a safe space to stop, turn on the ignition for a bit of power. You could easily drive to the next layby using the ignition switch as a 0% / 100% throttle.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

He also says on the interview that he thought he was going to 'die in the fire' even though he'd survived the crash - but he only had a bruise on his chin because of the accident, so why didn't he just get out of the car? Why would he have thought he was going to die in the fire? Did he turn the ignition off after the crash, or were the wheels spinning like mad until somebody (presumably with a brain perhaps) turned off the ignition?

Throughout the interview on the BBC you can hear from his voice that he's lying. What sort of moron would rather drive down the hard shoulder at 130mph than simply turn the ignition off?
Since he's presumably never turned off the ignition on a car while driving at any speed, why would he presume that he would have 'lost everything' as he so stupidly put it?

Suzy Stoddard, a top racing driver is also interviewed, and she congratulates him for 'not panicking'. Yeah right! She suggests that he could have "yanked the handbrake on" if he was on a clear road... And she's a racing driver? And she then says that if "the car is going to go into a spin, you can get the car to a standstill and then switch the engine off"...
Remind me never to get into a car with this 'expert'! If the engine is still racing and driving the wheels, how would you ever get the car to a standstill by pulling on the handbrake?

It's as if they're all skirting round the obvious problem with his story - he could have and should have just switched the engine off. That's one of the first things my dad ever taught me about driving - I asked him what you would do if the brakes failed. Turn the engine off! If the accelerator is jammed? Turn the engine off!!!

She then says "that would have put the car in the middle of the motorway with other motorists coming towards it", as if that's worse than travelling up BEHIND thousands of cars at 130mph...

She then says "When you switch the engine off you lose control, and yeah the car would start to slow down but then, because all cars are power steering it would just lock all the elements, so he wouldn't be able to steer, he wouldn't be able to do anything, so unless you did a test to see what did actually happen when you switched an engine off at 135mph I wouldn't have said that would have been a great option."

But the male presenter is starting to see through the whole stupidity of this load of rubbish, because he asks "Just a final word with you Kevin, do you now regret not turning the ignition off, at least it would have kind of brought the car to a halt at some point", to which our genius replies "I don't regret doing anything what I done, I done what I thought was right, nobody else was injured, I didn't even hit another car's wingmirror."

This guy should be banned from driving for life. I bet the police find that there's nothing wrong with the car at all. What did he think was going to happen if he turned off the engine? There was obviously nothing wrong with the car, and he was speeding like a maniac and seeking attention, probably intending to kill himself.

Sorry, I stand corrected.
Makes his story even more ridiculous!

And now, of course, millions of people have read the media's 'take' on it, and will think that the next time their 'accelerator gets stuck' they should leave the engine on...

I will admit that it does sound fishy, but I'm not going to pass judgement without knowing all the facts.

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Only when ideology, prejudice and dogma are set aside does the truth emerge - Kepler

You have just made his actions a little more understandable - you made an incorrect assumption. I assume his assumption was even more outrageous because he's blonde!!

Clearly a case of not enough training or experience - or did not take it on board!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

I once accidentally turned the ignition off when I was doing about 80 mph down the M2 (I nudged the key with my knee from just the wrong angle) and it really wasn't difficult to pull onto the hard shoulder and let the car glide to a halt -- at which point I simply started the car again and carried on as normal.

I seriously can't believe that the police didn't tell him to just switch it off, the potential carnage he could have caused with his insane driving could have been much worse.

I've been towed in a truck on a rigid bar and, once the wheels are rolling, although the steering is a bit heavy, it is still possible to turn corners without difficulty.

What I can't work out is his route. To paint a picture. He starts on the A1 near Thirsk, which then becomes a three lane A1(M). Where the A64 joins, a fourth lane commences, which ultimately becomes the slip road onto the A1. The existing three outer lanes becoming the M1 towards Leeds.

So if he was in that much difficulty, why did he not continue onto the M1? Seemingly, he has moved three lanes to the left to stay on the A1.

And why would he want to use the A1 to get to Portsmouth?

There was I doing about 96mph on a German autobahn, in the outside lane and I get a loud bang, all the warning light come on and I lose everything.
I hit the 4 ways, and a gap appeared for me to get off the autobahn on to the hard shoulder.
Steering was very difficult indeed, but I was able to manage it successfully, and found that not only had I lost my power steering, but the cause was the water pump assembly had pulled out of the housing, caused by the drivebelt being far too tight, and this was on a 6 week old car.
Yes, at high speed you can still steer, with difficulty, without power steering, and you can still use your brakes, with a bit more pedal pressure, and reassure your new girlfriend that we are going to survive, all at the same time.
In this particular case, the mans a muppet, and I'm ashamed to see that he claims to be a former lorry driver, i wonder why "former"?

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