Posted on 12/16/2009 8:06:23 AM PST by myknowledge
The frantic triple-0 call from a Melbourne motorist whose cruise control jammed has been released.
Chase Weir can be heard screaming "Oh my God, Oh my God, I'm gonna die!" as he veered onto the wrong side of the road near the end of his hair-raising 30-minute ordeal through Melbourne's east.
Earlier, he can be heard becoming panicked as he attempts to slow the 2002 Ford Explorer.
The cruise control originally became stuck on 100km/h on the Eastern Freeway in Kew, with Mr Weir's attempts to brake having little effect.
"It slows down to about 80 and then the car just accelerates ... the brake pedal gets really hard to push," the 22-year-old says to the emergency operator.
The operator then asks him to turn off the engine.
"No, the key won't actually move," Mr Weir replies.
"I tried ringing Ford and they said the key wouldn't move."
He tried to switch the 4WD into neutral but he is heard saying on the tape "the button won't push in."
Triple-0 operator Sgt Marnie Goldsmith continually tries to keep the driver calm.
"Listen — we're on the freeway, there's no need to panic, Chase," Sgt Goldsmith says.
"I'm doing my best," Mr Weir replies.
A police escort had been attempting to clear a path for the out-of-control car as it hurtled down the Eastlink roadway.
But in the southeast suburb of Frankston banked-up cars near Monash University forced Weir into oncoming traffic.
"I just went onto the wrong side of the road!" he yells.
"I need you with all your strength to go on the brake, as well as the handbrake," Sgt Goldsmith orders as Mr Weir screams in the background.
A police officer on the scene can then be heard saying that he has finally stopped, half an hour and over 40km from where he first encountered difficulties.
Mr Weir has since been treated for shock and was today reunited with Sgt Goldsmith, who has been praised for her handling of the bizarre and frightening situation.
My Honda has a mechanical button, but there’s nothing the computer system in the car can do to stop that from working correctly.
However, if it is electronic in that Ford truck, then the computer can override you as it sees fit. That’s very dangerous.
Maybe the steering rack “broke” too...
The linkage is meant to prevent you from pushing the shifter into reverse accidentally. It does not need to be pushed in to shift into neutral. Anyone with a girlfriend and bucket seats knows this..............Ahem!
“A lot of on the floor automatics have a button on the handle of the shifter you need to push in before the shifter will move.”
For neutral to reverse or drive, yes, but never from reverse or drive to neutral. It’s a safety feature mandated by the government. Every automatic I’ve ever driven worked that way.
Yes, but only out of park or into reverse from neutral. Never from drive to neutral.
Read the article.
LOLOLOLMAO
Fix Or Repair Daily
Before I say anything else, I want to say that I’m glad no one was injured...
1. RE: Going into the oncoming traffic lanes -
There was a traffic jam up ahead and he went into the other lane to avoid a definite accident. [It’s in the article]
2. As for the button not pushing in for Neutral - I remember my Mom’s stick shift had a button on the top you had to push in to move it. [1982(?) Mazda] He could’ve been trying to disengage the 4WD as well, but that wasn’t necessarily the only thing that would have a “button”. Also see #3 in this post...
3. Regarding all the posts saying this man is a liar -
I think half this confusion is probably due to the REPORTER not getting the story right in the retelling, frankly. Funny how with all the mistakes we’ve seen time and again from those in the media regarding all sorts of subjects that no-one would consider this...
4. Considering that so many things in a car are computer controlled, it IS possible for anything relying on the computer to get messed up if a circuit shorts out, etc... Don’t know if that’s a factor here, just something worth remembering, IMHO.
It looks like there is an ‘auto’ 4x4 mode. The truck may or may not have been in 4WD, but he apparently tried to put it in neutral by using the push buttons for the transfer case, instead of the lever for the transmission. That’s the way I read it, but I could be mistaken.
I don’t think his computer system caused this, I think he freaked.
“brakes will not work against that kind of force”
There are few if any cars where properly functioning brakes cannot overwhelm the engine - especially in the higher gears. Your brakes can lock up the wheels at 100 mph, but I doubt if your engine can spin the tires at 100 mph.
I simply killed the ignition when it happend to me. Worked like a charm.
By the way, once the car is in neutral the brakes will slow it down just fine.
I should’ve added a #5 — Pure Panic on his part... that IS a possibility I suppose...
you are.
I understand the computer malfunctioned, but popping a car into neutral doesn’t involve the linkage/button he claims he couldn’t push, at least not in ANY automatic I’ve ever driven. The button is needed to go from reverse to drive and vice versa, don’t need to engage it to pop from a drive gear to neutral.
Either way he walked away, but still... if you ever have an engine run away the first thing you do is pop it into neutral, period. Doesn’t matter if its computer malfunction or throttle body sticking or whatever that causes the engine to run away, the solution is the same put the car into neutral.
I only own manuals, so my automatic experience is all as a passenger or a borrowed car. So my experience is limited, but I always thought the button was necessary for any movement.
I read the damned article, thank-you. Every Explorer I’ve ever seen has something in it called a gearshift with the letters P,R,N,D by it. The N stands for neutral, and unless Ford no longer puts gearshifts on their Explorers, there no reason he could not have shifted into neutral.
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