Unpack for me the recurrent trope about 'runaway vehicle, accelerator stuck'

In My Humble Opinion
21

My first car was '74 Mercury Comet. It was my mom’s car, handed down to me in 1987. I even have a picture of it:

A friend and I did a bunch of work on it before I got it painted. I drove it around like that for several months.

Anyway, the car had cruise control that didn’t work. I think it was after-market, because the controls were attached to the blinker rod, with a separate cable running down the drive shaft into the engine compartment. Since it didn’t work, I cut the cable as close as I could and removed the controls.

At some point after that I stated having a weird problem: when I started to accelerate from a stop, if I pressed too hard, the accelerator would floor on its own for several seconds. This led to a lot of harrowing situations. Like I’d be making a left turn in the rain, and suddenly the car is taking off and I’m fishtailing. Or I’m holding down the brake as the car is trying to ram the person in front of me. After several seconds, the car would let go, and everything went back to normal.

The funniest thing was when my dad and I were going to change the oil. My dad had bought these new ramps to elevate a car. He told me to drive up the ramps. So I was gingerly pressing the accelerator, but it wasn’t enough to get the car up the ramps.

Being a dumb teenager, I hadn’t mentioned this little problem to my parents, until that moment. Dad kept saying “give it more gas!” I tried to tell him that would be a problem, and finally pressed down on the pedal. Sure enough, the car launched up and over the ramps, crushing them.

Dad was pissed, then even more pissed that I hadn’t told him about this problem before. We took it to a mechanic who lived down the street from us. He quickly figured out something was catching at the “engine end” of the cruise control. He just disconnected some wire, and the problem was solved.

22

That happened to my mother, back in the day when cars had actual mechanical linkage. She very calmly put the car in neutral and stomped on the gas pedal a few times until it unstuck, then calmly put the car back in gear and continued driving.

I remember thinking my mother was very cool in a crisis.

23

This happened to me about 40 years ago, in a '66 MG Midget. The pedal went to the floor, because
the projection on the exhaust manifold which retained the return spring had broken off. I switched off and steered to the side of the road (no steering locks in those days).

24

Or your trying to put on you flip flop, and can’t be bothered to put the car in park first.

This example is unintended acceleration from a stop or low speed, which I think is always driver error.

25

I did drivers ed in high school in 1978. Part of the training was dealing with a stuck accelerator. We’d be driving through a neighbourhood at around 30mph and the instructor would reach over with a yard stick and hold the accelerator where it was. Then he’d tell the driver to turn at the next corner. The correct procedure if I remember correctly was to shift to neutral, turn off the ignition, and pull to the side of the road.

He’d also do things like reach over and switch off the ignition and we’d have to pull over safely with no power steering or power brakes.

26

What has to happen is several things going wrong at once-- and they can go wrong, if you live in a state like Indiana, with no safety inspections, but it’s unlikely even here, where you see cars without hoods, or missing doors, or dragging mufflers, which throw up sparks. Or taking off in clouds of black smoke like they are part octopus.

First, we are assuming that whoever tampered with the accelerator also tampered with the regular brakes, so those don’t work either, because if they do, you should be able to stop with those.

Normally, a car with a stuck accelerator and no brakes could be stopped with the transmission. Reduce the speed, and then put it into park, or if it is a manual, put it into neutral. When it is going slow enough, shut of the engine and put it first.

But, shifters break, so you could be stuck in third, a high enough gear to go pretty fast if the accelerator is stuck.

If the car has a carburetor, you could actually try pumping the accelerator, assuming it moves forward, just does not release, and flood the throttle with gas, causing the engine to die. But there are other things to try first.

Try the emergency brake.

Those frequently don’t work, though, because people with automatic transmissions do set them on a regular basis and they rust. On manual cars, they are old, and have failed.

Try just shutting off the engine-- make sure you are belted in. The car will lurch forward, and you may do some damage to the car, but it should stop. If it doesn’t, you have done so poorly with regular maintenance, that you deserve what happens.

Look for a something thick and soft to crash into, or a long steep hill.

27

Highways in hilly areas often do have designated long steep hills, for runaway trucks. A truck going down a steep hill can sometimes overheat its brakes and go out of control, in which case the driver should pull off into one of those emergency-stop hills.

28

Nice victim blaming there.

I hope you’re referring to a long steep uphill. Though there are significant square miles of this country that don’t have any hills to speak of.

29

Possibly as a last resort. Because there are some negatives with doing that: you’ll lose power brakes, and you’ll lose power steering if it’s a hydraulic steering system. And if you accidently turn the key past “off” and to the “lock” position, the steering wheel will lock up. (At least for older cars. Not sure about newer ones.)

30

We already did this upthread.

There are mechanical interlocks to prevent you turning the key from “on” to “lock” unless the trans is already in park. Or unless you do certain other actions on a manual transmission.

This has been true since the “lock” position was introduced in the late 1960s as an antitheft measure. Why the interlock feature? Precisely to prevent the scenario you suggest: people inadvertently locking their steering while still moving. It’s pretty much impossible to do that.

31

I wasn’t aware of that. Good to know. Ignorance fought. :slight_smile:

32

I was kidding.

Albeit, telling someone if they don’t maintain their car, it may break down on them is not the same thing as telling a woman that dressing a particular way will invite a man to attack them.

33

I actually had brakes (master cylinder), then emergency brakes fail on a car once. It was a 3-speed manual, and too old for any wheel locks, nor power anything.

I put it in neutral, pulled onto the shoulder, put it in second; it slowed significantly. I wouldn’t go into first except from a standstill, and I considered trying to slam it, but it got going slow enough in second that then engine was putzing, so I put it in neutral, opened the door and jumped out, then stopped it just standing there, hopped back in, and put it in first.

I also once saved a $100 tow fee by managing to drive a car with a bad clutch cylinder to the mechanic’s. I started it in second, and got onto the road. When it needed to go into 3rd, I shut off the engine, shifted, and started it back up. There was one stretch where it wanted to be in fourth, but I pushed it in third. It wasn’t to loud. At least the muffler was good.

Drove about a mile and a half like that. I knew where the lights were, and that helped. Didn’t have to downshift.