letmeshowyou Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 Did anyone else see the thing in the paper today about the guy in the runaway BMW? Apparently his accelerator jammed on a motorway, so he called out the police. They sent out 4 cars and a helicopter to follow him. Eventually he stopped by crashing into a roundabout at 130mph... Reading through the article I asked myself why he didnt take it out of gear... and it covers that... it was an automatic and it wouldnt let him do so (faulty cruise control maybe). He also burnt his brakes out trying to slow down, but the thing i REALLY don't get is... why didn't he just turn the engine off!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MARTIN R Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 BMW drivers dont give way for anyone so why would he want to stop:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
letmeshowyou Posted March 11, 2006 Author Share Posted March 11, 2006 lmao fair point! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 It doesn't say he crashed into the roundabout at 130mph in my paper. Is a 318 even capable of 130mph? A BMW spokesman said there's no reason the car wouldn't be able to be put into Neutral just because the engine was on the rev limiter. Turning the engine off would mean no power brakes and power steering though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
letmeshowyou Posted March 11, 2006 Author Share Posted March 11, 2006 agreed... but if the brakes are burnt out anyway I don't see a problem with them not being power assisted... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gaz1 Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 Did anyone else see the thing in the paper today about the guy in the runaway BMW? Apparently his accelerator jammed on a motorway, so he called out the police. They sent out 4 cars and a helicopter to follow him. Eventually he stopped by crashing into a roundabout at 130mph... Reading through the article I asked myself why he didnt take it out of gear... and it covers that... it was an automatic and it wouldnt let him do so (faulty cruise control maybe). He also burnt his brakes out trying to slow down, but the thing i REALLY don't get is... why didn't he just turn the engine off!? yeah that happened to me exacly the same thing didnt want to take it out of gear though, might have blown the engine but just turned the engine off and just slowed to a stop, was a porche 924 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkyJawa Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 He says the power steering would have got heavy hence not turning the car off. Right so heavy power steering vs crashing into a roundabout at over 100 - riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Complete tosser IMHO, switch off and coast to a stop since the police were around him - he made bad call IMHO. Wonder if they gonna do him for using a mobile while driving too? LOL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MARTIN R Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 He says the power steering would have got heavy hence not turning the car off. Right so heavy power steering vs crashing into a roundabout at over 100 - riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Complete tosser IMHO, switch off and coast to a stop since the police were around him - he made bad call IMHO. Wonder if they gonna do him for using a mobile while driving too? LOL! Probably didnt indicate either:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
letmeshowyou Posted March 11, 2006 Author Share Posted March 11, 2006 Right so heavy power steering vs crashing into a roundabout at over 100 - riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Complete tosser IMHO, switch off and coast to a stop since the police were around him - he made bad call IMHO also agree. very bad call - and this is the reason I believe he should face a charge. the mobile was hands free btw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ark Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 If he couldn't get it out of gear, turning off the engine would result in instant, massive engine braking...with no power steering to help keep things in line. Still - sounds like a better risk than cushioning yourself with a roundabout! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TLicense Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 BMW seems to be a bit blaze about this don't they? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobSheffield Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 You could understand it in a blink of an eye kind of incident, but by the sounds of it he had loads of time to sort it out and switch off his engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TLicense Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 Well yeah, I mean he obviously wasn't thinking or was a twat or whatever, but still BMW should be shitting themselves that it would happen in the first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobSheffield Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 yes, you would think so Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3681938.stm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 There's more on the BBC site. Videos too! Your isp needs to be BBCi-friendly for good quality videos though. Opps no ignore me. Just audio interview with the guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colsoop Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 I think the guy just flapped in a crisis situation and did the wrong thing. Very easy to see the right way to do things when looking at it from the ouside He said he didn't want to turn the engine off as he thought the steering lock would kick in and foorce him off the road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazboy Posted March 12, 2006 Share Posted March 12, 2006 Nah, billy bullshitter with a story snowballing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbourner Posted March 15, 2006 Share Posted March 15, 2006 Saw this today on the news. Said turning off engine would have caused steering to lock! Err only if you take the key out surely? And it wouldn't come out of gear - I'd have kept trying that TBH. Shouldn't the brakes be able to stop a car at WOT anyway if applied hard enough? Obviously he kept the brakes on for a few miles at 70 and buggered them - but if he'd just pushed them harder and harder in the first few seconds he would've slowed enough to cut the power? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n00b Posted March 15, 2006 Share Posted March 15, 2006 he obviously didnt have the magic red button n00b p.s. dunno know if it would have worked... or care really... i hate bmws Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew7 Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 Turn the engine off Put it in neutral if you can Turn the ignition back on if you're worried about the steering lock (even if you're still in gear the engine won't restart, you can't bump start an auto!.....) 5-6 seconds at the most, doesn't take much road and sounds like he had plenty................ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian R Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 He was worried that he would lose all steering if he turned the engine off. Strange thing is that at 70 moh he phoned the AA WTF didn't he pull over at that speed. Cuold have been worse he could have been in a Supra crapping it at 170 180 mph Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbourner Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 I don't think dry steering with no PAS is a problem at 70 though!! Obviously a dumbarse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Haggas Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 The word wan**r springs to mind!Nothing a public flogging wouldnt sort out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lambertpig Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 i used to have a bmw 323 manual. the accelarator pedal broke and instead of fixing it properly i got a bodg job done with a hinge sort of thing. one day when flooring the pedal it jammed down and left me accelarating like mad.i managed to put my toes under it and free it up again. things happen very quickly and it does scare you not being in control.i think this other guy must have been a right nob to not work out a way to stop if he had the time to piss about with his phone he must have seen too many of those runaway car/coach movies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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