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FROM TODAYS TIMES....
130mph, throttle stuck, then brakes fail. What do you do?
By Will Pavia
After 30 minutes of terror, a BMW driver found a devastating answer
IT WAS a BMW with a top speed of 135mph, but the owner, Kevin Nicolle, never knew quite how fast that was until last Sunday, soon after he discovered that his accelerator pedal was stuck to the floor.
In 30 minutes he sped through three counties, outran a fleet of police cars and finally careered on to a roundabout, shouting to a woman police operator to call an ambulance because “I ain’t surviving this”.
It was “like being strapped on to a rocket”, he said.
Mr Nicolle, 25, bought his BMW318 in April. “Some people spend money on themselves,” he told The Times. “All my money goes on my car.”
Disaster struck as he was driving it through the North Yorkshire dales along the A1 on his way home to Portsmouth. As he passed the town of Thirsk, he took his foot off the accelerator — but the car speeded up. “The pedal was stuck to the floor,” he said.
Mr Nicolle called the AA on his hands-free phone. They told him to call the police, who dispatched four fast cars and a helicopter. For a time the brakes held the 125-horsepower engine to 70mph. He then tried to slip the car into neutral. “I couldn’t do it,” he said. “I couldn’t turn off the ignition because it would have disabled the power steering and made it even more dangerous.”
The police officer on the end of the line said that they would attempt a “rolling stop”: boxing in the car with police vehicles to slow it down gradually.
It was too late. The brakes began to burn out and the car started going faster and faster with Mr Nicolle gripping the steering wheel in terror.
“I saw the dial going past 100mph, 115, 120,” he said. “I was praying for the police cars to show up, but they couldn’t catch me. I was reaching 135mph. I honestly thought I was going to die. I started to get pins and needles all over my body. I was really panicking and broke into tears.” He overtook cars on the verge of the fast lane. He tore up behind two articulated lorries, driving side-by-side.
“There was another guy in the fast lane,” Mr Nicolle said. “I tried to go through and the guy sped up. He wouldn’t let me through. What was he thinking? I had my hazard lights on and there was a helicopter above. I was inches from the back of the truck and the car.” He managed to thread the BMW between the two vehicles.
Police told him to get on to the hard shoulder. He shot past several slip roads, narrowly missing a car. Then he saw the sign — Roundabout 800 yards. It was a raised roundabout, with a grassy crest. “That’s when I said: ‘I ain’t surviving this’.” He remembers a loud bang, and a woman’s voice shouting: “He’s crashed, he’s crashed.”
Then he was upside down against the roof. “The car started to fill with smoke. I said to the firemen, ‘Don’t cut my car’. It seems stupid but she’s my baby. The firemen said, ‘She’s a write-off, mate’.” Mr Nicolle survived with hardly a scratch.
BMW will now examine the car, which was built in 1998. “We would need to see how it has been maintained,” a spokesman said. “It sounds like something has happened to the throttle cable.” In 1999 the company recalled 280,000 vehicles because of problems with brakes and airbags. “That was a completely unrelated problem,” the spokesman said.
Mr Nicolle said that he will never drive again. “If you walk away from an accident like that you want to call it quits.”
WELL, TRY THIS...
Stephen Mead, assistant chief examiner at the Institute of Advanced Motorists, says:
DO NOT
Put your foot underneath the accelerator pedal and try to lift it up. You could lose control of the vehicle
Brake. It will not help as the accelerator will still be jammed on
Pull key out of ignition — the steering will lock
Try to use handbrake. “The rear wheels are likely to lock and then it’s goodnight Vienna”
DO
Shift the car into neutral
Turn the key one notch to kill the engine. You will lose power steering and power-assisted brakes but you will still be able to control the car
130mph, throttle stuck, then brakes fail. What do you do?
By Will Pavia
After 30 minutes of terror, a BMW driver found a devastating answer
IT WAS a BMW with a top speed of 135mph, but the owner, Kevin Nicolle, never knew quite how fast that was until last Sunday, soon after he discovered that his accelerator pedal was stuck to the floor.
In 30 minutes he sped through three counties, outran a fleet of police cars and finally careered on to a roundabout, shouting to a woman police operator to call an ambulance because “I ain’t surviving this”.
It was “like being strapped on to a rocket”, he said.
Mr Nicolle, 25, bought his BMW318 in April. “Some people spend money on themselves,” he told The Times. “All my money goes on my car.”
Disaster struck as he was driving it through the North Yorkshire dales along the A1 on his way home to Portsmouth. As he passed the town of Thirsk, he took his foot off the accelerator — but the car speeded up. “The pedal was stuck to the floor,” he said.
Mr Nicolle called the AA on his hands-free phone. They told him to call the police, who dispatched four fast cars and a helicopter. For a time the brakes held the 125-horsepower engine to 70mph. He then tried to slip the car into neutral. “I couldn’t do it,” he said. “I couldn’t turn off the ignition because it would have disabled the power steering and made it even more dangerous.”
The police officer on the end of the line said that they would attempt a “rolling stop”: boxing in the car with police vehicles to slow it down gradually.
It was too late. The brakes began to burn out and the car started going faster and faster with Mr Nicolle gripping the steering wheel in terror.
“I saw the dial going past 100mph, 115, 120,” he said. “I was praying for the police cars to show up, but they couldn’t catch me. I was reaching 135mph. I honestly thought I was going to die. I started to get pins and needles all over my body. I was really panicking and broke into tears.” He overtook cars on the verge of the fast lane. He tore up behind two articulated lorries, driving side-by-side.
“There was another guy in the fast lane,” Mr Nicolle said. “I tried to go through and the guy sped up. He wouldn’t let me through. What was he thinking? I had my hazard lights on and there was a helicopter above. I was inches from the back of the truck and the car.” He managed to thread the BMW between the two vehicles.
Police told him to get on to the hard shoulder. He shot past several slip roads, narrowly missing a car. Then he saw the sign — Roundabout 800 yards. It was a raised roundabout, with a grassy crest. “That’s when I said: ‘I ain’t surviving this’.” He remembers a loud bang, and a woman’s voice shouting: “He’s crashed, he’s crashed.”
Then he was upside down against the roof. “The car started to fill with smoke. I said to the firemen, ‘Don’t cut my car’. It seems stupid but she’s my baby. The firemen said, ‘She’s a write-off, mate’.” Mr Nicolle survived with hardly a scratch.
BMW will now examine the car, which was built in 1998. “We would need to see how it has been maintained,” a spokesman said. “It sounds like something has happened to the throttle cable.” In 1999 the company recalled 280,000 vehicles because of problems with brakes and airbags. “That was a completely unrelated problem,” the spokesman said.
Mr Nicolle said that he will never drive again. “If you walk away from an accident like that you want to call it quits.”
WELL, TRY THIS...
Stephen Mead, assistant chief examiner at the Institute of Advanced Motorists, says:
DO NOT
Put your foot underneath the accelerator pedal and try to lift it up. You could lose control of the vehicle
Brake. It will not help as the accelerator will still be jammed on
Pull key out of ignition — the steering will lock
Try to use handbrake. “The rear wheels are likely to lock and then it’s goodnight Vienna”
DO
Shift the car into neutral
Turn the key one notch to kill the engine. You will lose power steering and power-assisted brakes but you will still be able to control the car
