Our local TV news programme showed him in a car show-room picking out his next car. So is he going to drive again or not ? 
How about an “ask the high performance driving instructor” thread? I for one would find it most interesting. First on my list would be, how should one drive differently in a rear-wheel drive car than a front-wheel drive?
(apologies for the slight hijack)
A lot of people seem quick to blame here. Most modern cars are ‘fly by wire’ - basic functions are electronically controlled by the central computer. If this goes haywire, many systems can screw up at once.
What inputs was the computer willing to accept- would it accept turning off the ignition. If the clutch was disengaged or neutral was selected, did the engine then sound like it was going to blow.
Maybe it would be a good idea to wait for an engineer’s report before engaging in baseless blaming.
It helps a little to actually do a bit of googling, and let’s face it, the BBC is not a difficult website to find.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4796264.stm
Now if the fellow had been an idiot, and hadn’t turned off his engine, or tried to get into neutral etc etc as suggested by other posters here, don’t you think that the police would have suggested he did just that when he called them up ?
Bear in mind that the car already had over 100k miles on it, the brakes could well not be in the best condition.
He is a truck driver for crying out loud, don’t you imagine he has some little basic clue how to drive ?
Talk about quick to judgement .
…and more
Autos have been known to do weird things, if he had ABS fitted then there’s every chance that the system would not allow him to brake hard enough to overcome the engine power at that speed, it would probably be programmed not to stall the engine given that this would cut the brakes.
There may be more to it, but somehow I would imagine that phoning the AA and police to let them know you are travelling at around double the speed limit seems an extremely unlikely thing to do.
Given that he is a truck driver, its very likely he knows that particular road as it is one of the main routes up and down the country.
The guy was very lucky not to have been killed where he crashed, its a busy roundabout, if he hadn’t crashed there, he could not possibly have made it across the next one as the exit is angled compared to the entry, it would have gone striaght and into the trees on the right hand side, if he didn’t collide with something first, as this one is a very busy junction.
Yes, I agree that about 3/4 of the US population is too stupid or ignorant to be behind the wheel. Because I’d guess that’s the percentage of people in the US who haven’t a clue what to do in this situation. Driver’s ed - at least when I took it - never mentioned how to deal with these sorts of situations. I don’t know what the situation is in other countries.
And I’d like to second the “ask the high performance driver instructor” thread suggestion.
Does power steering still turn to concrete when the engine is turned off or is that just in old cars?
"He decided against turning off the engine for fear the steering would lock. "
I have a few thoughts on this. First, I have been on a vehicle with a stuck throttle. It wasn’t an automobile, but rather a dirt bike. It wouldn’t kick start so I push started it. When I let off the throttle and it kept accelerating. I had about two seconds before I ran into some thick woods. I didn’t have time to think to pull the clutch or hit the brakes, so I leaned her over and let her slide out from under me. It’s easy to say you know what to do, but in such a situation, especially if it hasn’t happened to you before, it typically takes a few seconds for rational thought to kick in.
On the other hand, if this car only has 138 horsepower, he had a lot of time for rational thought to kick in. I have a Thunderbird LX that has 140 horsepower. Even if it didn’t have a speed limiter at 109 mph, I don’t think it could hit 130. My Thunderbird Supercoupe has about 260 horsepower, and could probably do about 145 to 150, but it still takes a while to hit 130. By then, anyone should have thought about shifting to neutral or killing the engine. The article says he couldn’t shift into neutral, so I’ll assume there was some safety device preventing him from doing so. (I’ve never seen a car with such a safety device, but I’ve never driven such an expensive car either.) The ignition thing doesn’t sound right to me. Every car I’ve seen has a position between run and lock, sometimes two. I can only guess that he was afraid he’d turn the key too far back, but I’d rather take my chances with that than continuing driving at 130 mph until I ran out of gas. Even if he did lock the steering wheel, it’s not hard to turn the key back forward. Furthermore, I haven’t seen a car made in the last 20 years where you could turn the key to lock if the transmission wasn’t in park. Isn’t that mandated by the federal government, like how cars with manual transmissions have to have a button you push to turn it to lock?
That’s in newer cars too, but not as bad. The lighter the car and the faster it’s going, the less it will make a difference.
Like I said, I had the exact same car until 18 months ago. I used to play with it and screw with it all the time. My wife has a 325i now that I laso play with and screw with. They aren’t all that much “fly by wire”.
Also, you most certainly can turn off the ignition without locking the steering and there are multiple positions as noted (I did lock the steering wheel at about 40 mph screwing around on a country road and that scared the crap out of me but I got out of it). Shifting into neurtal works as well.
These systems aren’t as complicated as on some cars and are mechanically controlled.
Again, BMW brakes are massive and way overengineered as well. That is one thing they are known for and it is true. If you drive one, it would be immediately obvious. The stock BMW brakes are often used for race track driving.
You will loose power stearing, but it’s really not an issue at speed.
While almost anyones initial response would be panic, this guy is supposed to be a former truck driver.
After about 2 seconds of WTF, IF his brakes would not stop the car :rolleyes: :dubious: he had two very clear and simple options. Turn ignition one click back, or put it in neutral.
I suspect the guy is lying.
Ah, here we go - the runaway truck incident I was referring to earlier. It seems that in this case it was the combination of a stuck throttle and panicky novice trucker with Munchausen’s syndrome. I suspect similar fuckwittery from the BMW driver, who could have done any number of things to stop his car, even without brakes.
He should drive my Citroen. When the engine dies it loses power steering, suspension and brakes. I had it die at 70 mph once, but I just let it roll to a stop in the breakdown lane. I also had an old Austin Maxi that shorted out a wire, instantly vaporising the insulation and filling the cabin with dense white smoke that I couldn’t see through. Luckily I was at the point of rolling to a stop at some traffic lights, so I was able to leap out the car coughing and spluttering.
Am I alone in being continually annoyed by movies where the hero has to contend with an out-of-control vehicle due to the brake lines being cut by the villian? There’s any number of things they can do, but don’t, and yet they somehow prevail.
Okay, having read those articles casdave posted, I’m going to modify my position a little. The guy’s lying or a complete idiot. Or as Fridgemagnet suggests, he has Munchhausen syndrome.
Yes, we can all panic in a situation we aren’t prepared for, but he had at least 30 minutes to try and cope with this situation. I can’t imagine being in a blind panic for that long. And he had enough presence of mind to make a few phone calls.
He says that he couldn’t turn off the ignition because he’d lose power steering and that would be unsafe?!? He’s saying that there are no long straight stretches on the A1 that he could have used to bring the car to a safe stop with reduced steering?
I stand behind all I said about boiling brake fluid and all that, but something’s fishy about this story. I wonder if anyone did a post-mortem inspection of the car to see if they could find the problem with the throttle. Would British cops routinely do this to verify the driver’s story? (Would American cops?)
(DarrenS and Broomstick: Thanks for the suggestion of an “Ask the high performance driving instructor” thread. My first reaction is that I don’t have time to do it justice this month, nor do I need a reason right now to spend even more time on SDMB. 
But if I don’t succumb to the temptation to do it now, I’ll start one in early April, when I’ll have a little more time.)
The federal government of which country? 
Another previous case came to mind when I head this one in the news - Slashdot thread about it: A Car With A Mind Of Its Own - Slashdot
Faux pas. I didn’t notice it was in Britain. I would still be surprised if cars there could be turned to lock while in drive though.
Given this was in Britain, the chances are that it was a manual - and I’ve not encountered a manual here which has any button to push.
According to the links provided by Casdave, the car was an automatic.
Geez watch 2001 or Colossus recently?
OK first off I would say some not most. But that is picking nits. I teach on fly by wire cars and have since they were introduced. The BMW in question is a 1998. IANABMWE (not a BMW expert) but the 318 is BMW’s bottom of the line entry level car. I very seriously doubt that a 98 3 series would have fly by wire. A 5 or 7 series sure, but a 318? Not till several years later.
But what if it did? The base functions are not controlled by the computer, but rather the higher functions such as fuel control for emissions and power, cruise control, ABS. The base functions such as supplying power to the system, shifting, and applying the brakes are still strictly a manual operation. In particular the ignition key is a mechanical switch that supply electrical power to the various systems in the car. The “computer” does not control the ignition switch, but the ignition switch controls the computer. So it is not up to the computer to accept the ignition key being turned off, the computer does not have any choice in the matter. Saying that the car’s computer would not accept a key command is like saying my desktop computer started sending spam, I could not pull out the power cord from the wall because it would not let me. Riiiiiggggghhhhttttt. Also see the last paragraph of this post for what the real experts said.
Casdave Using the links your provided we can get a pretty good picture of what happened
I think we can all agree that this guy panicked. I think we can all agree that panic is not the best way to deal with an emergency.
I think if we read his quotes we can get an idea of why he didn’t do the actions that have been suggested here. ( I mean other than the fact he was crying like a little girl, which is probably the main reason he did not do what he should have)
Kill the key OK we are left with two versions of why he didn’t kill the key
OK not everyone is an automotive expert and he might not have realized that you can turn the engine off without locking the steering, but then the story changes
Anybody else notice a change between these two quotes? Sounds like somebody is trying to cover their ass here.
Use the brakes stupid Now if you read carefully you can find out the root cause of this guy being unable to stop
I think I see the problem. He did not apply the brakes hard enough. Look if you are trying to overcome the inertia of your car + 138 Horsepower you car going to have push for all that you are worth on that brake pedal. It will not be easy, but it can be done. The brakes (Particularly BMW brakes) are plenty powerful enough The telling phrase is keep my speed down to. If he had jammed the brakes all the way he would have continued to slow down, not just maintained speed. For you American dopers, did you see the comments in the news reports about MOT? In England cars have to have a complete inspection every year, so it is not like the states where you can drive a beater for years and years with nobody looking at it. I think the default assumption should be that the brakes were in serviceable condition.
Shift to neutral This is where this guy shows up as an true moron
'Scuse me, but WTF? Gears jammed on an automatic? Unable to shift? Somebody must have slipped up to this idiot and whispered into his ear that what he was saying was impossible, because the story then becomes
All right :wally pick one story and stick to the damn thing. Don’t keep changing stories at the same rate I change my socks and expect me to believe you.
On and in case you missed it, from the experts at BMW
IMNSHO there was a throttle return spring failure and the throttle went to the floor. He stepped on the brakes, but not hard enough to stop the car. the brakes started to overheat and he panicked. Once he got into panic mode, he was pretty much worthless. Then he crashed.
Mine did. IIRC the suggestions were:
1 - put foot under the gas pedel and try to pry it up
2 - Shift car into N
3 - Turn car off - but don’t turn key to the lock position - be careful if you have power strearing or brakes as they may/will lose power but will still work.
4 - If needed hit something soft and non-human.
At least in teh US, the typical stering whell lock is designed so you CAN’T turn it to the lock position unless the auto trans is in Park, or for a manual, the mechanical key release is pushed.
So you can’t lock your steering by turning the key off during a throttle runaway. Total no-brainer.