Brakes failed! Can't stop! HELP! - France news article
 

Car jammed at 200 km/h races across France until tank empty


PARIS — A driver hurtled through northern France at 200 km/h for more than 160 kilometres after his car speed regulator jammed and the brakes failed.

Franck Lecerf had set out in his Renault Laguna 3 to visit his local supermarket in Pont-de-Metz, but ended up in a Belgian ditch after an hour-long white-knuckle ride escorted by police cars along the northern French coastal highway.

The journey — in which Lecerf saw “his entire life flash before his eyes” — ended in Alveringem when he finally ran out of gasoline.

Lecerf was on a divided highway when the speed dial of his car, which had been specially adapted for disabled drivers, jammed at 96 km/h.

Each time the 36-year-old driver tried to brake, the car accelerated instead of slowing down, eventually hitting 200 km/h.

As other cars honked and swerved from his path, Lecerf managed to call the emergency services.

Several police officers, realizing that Lecerf’s only option was to keep going until his gasoline ran out, escorted him at breakneck speed across more than 160 km of French highway, past Calais and Dunkirk, and over the Belgian border.

Three toll stations were obliged to raise their barriers as Lecerf shot through.

“My life flashed before me,” he told Le Courrier Picard. “I just wanted it to stop.”

He said he had suffered two epileptic seizures as a result of the ordeal.

A Renault technician had sought to advise police on how to solve the problem as they gave chase, to no avail.

Lecerf said it was not his first speed-jamming incident but that Renault had looked at the car and said that it had fixed the problem.

“This time, they’ve gone too far,” he said.

His lawyer said he would file a legal complaint over “endangerment of a person’s life.”

Renault said it would await the results of an investigation.

take ... key ... out?

press and hold push to start until off?

Shift to neutral?

I don't even ....

sounds to me like someone had a great way to get a police escorted joy ride!

:suspicious: Sounds like he just confused the pedals...

It likely doesn't have pedals. If it's been adapted for a disabled person, it probably has a dial or switch for acceleration and braking.

Good use of neutral and ebrake
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Should of just put it in neutral..

Cannot imagine popping it to neutral would not have been considered, given that so many cars in Europe are stick shift and most people know how to drive one. Perhaps this modification for the disabled driver also prevented this.

Like others have stated why didn't he just pop it into neutral or downshift:suspicious:

It says the guy is disabled, was probably an auto.

If that happened to me I would have put it in neutral as well but you'd have no idea how many people who don't know shit about cars don't know what neutral does. The ones I know anyways lol

whenever I think about a vehicle not stopping, I always think about the whole Toyota Prius incident haha

then shut it down. this is just another classic case of fail common sense.

JSALES, that video was freaking awesome. :rofl:

If it's an auto in drive, doesn't shutting the car off lock the tires and potentially throw him into a violent accident?

I haven't had an auto in almost a decade, so forgive any ignorance.

why would it lock up the tranny? then engine shuts off. the transmission dosnt just lock up when the engine is off, hell u can start the car again just by hitting the ignition not even to the starter position (some new cars require you be fully stopped when re starting) you can put an auto car in park when going 100km/h and all you will here is clicking, theres a large pin that wont drop and lock the tranny till going like 5km/h or under

Oh, I saw a car at the strip cut the ignition at the track (stuck gas pedal) and then locked up. Pretty scary, but it was a long time ago so I don't remember the details.

You can't blame the driver for not knowing what to do....................neither did the cops :badpokerface:

Oh he can't stop, we will just escort him until the gas runs out..........OH COME ON!!

Unless the car has the safeguard built in, if you thrown an auto car into park at speed, you will most likely shear the pawl right off.

Relatively speaking, it's actually a pretty small pin (pawl).

http://www.nmia.com/~dgnrg/park_pawl.jpg

It's why it's really important to use the parking brake in an automatic car when on a hill. That little pawl is what's holding the entire weight of the car from rolling down the hill.

I've actually trained my wife to use the parking brake on our Ranger EVERY time she parks, whether it's on a hill or not.