Muppet BMW driver

Ooops, not stuck in neutral, that would have solved it!

Stuck in *gear*.

...and Ian Rawlings spake unto the tribes of Usenet, saying...

I read this too. What a tw@t. He was on the A1, which has plenty of straight stretches. Wait for a straight bit, turn ignition off, hold car steady until it stops. How hard is that? (To be fair, a PAS car without power to the steering is blooming hard work, as the steering is normally geared very high.)

I've never owned a Beemer, and perhaps thay are more powerful than a very powerful thing, but I can't imagine any car I have ever driven that couldn't be stalled, even with the gas full on, by a sufficiently determined application of the middle pedal. Thinking of drying out brakes etc.

Thje PAS pump is powered by the rotation of the engine, leave the damned thing in gear, turn the ignition off and you STILL have PAS all the way to stop.

Steve

I've driven my landy and my audi without the PAS working, it's hard to steer at low speeds but at higher speeds it's not that difficult. I'm a weedy computer consultant too. Try hopping in the landy and steering the wheel with the ignition off, it can be done and that's the hardest it'll be to turn the wheel, even moving at less than walking pace makes it far, far easier.

As for the brakes, he must have been using them throughout the journey as I don't see how he could have driven the car at max throttle without brakes for some 60 miles (or was it kilometres?). Just can't have been using them enough. An A1 muppet, in more ways than one.

What also puzzles me is how come he wasn't told what to do when on the phone to both the AA and the police, all very puzzling.

But what an excellent excuse when faced with wanting to speed and not being able to do so legally; attention seeker ???

When the power steering pump broke on my car, i drove it around for a month or so without one - it was still easier to manouver than a 101 :)

That crossed my mind too.

I was just thinking the same thing then a thought struck me.What if it wasn't a manual box I rarely drive on an auto box these days but would the torque converter supply enough thrust to keep the engine turning? either way its pure rubbish I have been towed many miles with inoperative pas and no servo brakes in loaded transit vans now that IS exciting but do-able the last time was from the top of the Cat and Fiddle down to Manchester Airport (engine seized) towed by an LWB series Landy so IMO the guy is a plank Derek

Even with the heaviest vehicles, it is still perfectly possible to steer without the help of PAS. I've had it pack up on fully laden double decker buses (about 15tonnes all-up) and when moving above

20mph you wouldn't notice the PAS had packed up. It's hard work at roundabouts, but as long as you keep it rolling, it's possible for all except the very puny. And no, the steering isn't geared down on commercials any more, since PAS has been fitted to nearly all of them since the late 60's.

It's not the first time someone's used the "accellerator stuck" excuse, there was a lorry driver a couple of years back who tried it, speeding down the motorway, claiming he couldn't turn the engine off to slow it down as he would have lost his brakes (and his PAS, he said)

Anyone who knows anything about commercial air-brake systems would immediatly spot this one as bollocks. I believe he was prosecuted for speeding.

Alex

Talk about wide goalposts! Easier to maneouver than a 101, let's just think what isn't... Hmmm... Dockside crane?

My plastic rocket's got no PAS, wide front tyres, high geared steering and a tiny steering wheel, I actually sprained my wrists trying to drive it, after a few months they toughened up though. It was harder to steer than the Defender without PAS.

Actually it might be harder than a 101, no visibility to the rear or the sides, almost impossible to steer unless moving, and the added bonus that if you manage to park it in a normal car park, you can't open the doors to get out! So I think we can add a 17-year-old Lotus to the list of things that are harder than a 101...

(snip)

He wasn't a professional footballer was he? The level of intelligence seems to match.

He looked like an ageing barry boy (a.k.a chav) but in an automatic?

In the interview he didn't come across as competent, but then he might be a brain surgeon in real life, although somehow I doubt it, his rings would keep falling off into people's craniums.

Can't be any harder than trying to steer a series out of a tight parking spot, going from full lock to full lock.

What feels odd when the power suddenly goes off on the steering is the sudden transition from easy to v hard, feels like it has locked up. ditto with the brake servo.

On or around Sat, 11 Mar 2006 19:17:58 -0000, "Richard Brookman" enlightened us thusly:

not on an auto, though. You might get it to a halt, but you'd not stall it, just stall the converter at probably about 1800 RPM or so. if it was once up to speed and was a powerful motor at full throttle, the brakes might possibly not stop it. Also, if it was going fast to start with, bringing it down to a stop at full throttle might not happen before the brakes faded - and if the brakes faded, I wouldn't bank on stopping it at all - I've only once had terminal brake fade (due to a mixture of poor driving and worn discs) and the brake performance was reduced to probably about 25% of normal even with hard pedal pressure. Given something like a 3.5l BMW engine at full chat, 25% brakes ain't gonna stop it, possibly.

none of which means the driver's not a muppet for not just switching off.

Attention seeking nutjob if he is willing to crash to try and avoid getting in trouble!!

His brakes, if in good condition, should have been able to stop the car. If his brakes weren't in good condition then he was driving an unfit vehicle.

Turning off the ignition wouldn't have prevented him from driving or braking. He could have always turned it back on again if he needed it.

There was nothing to stop him from driving into a field or, preferably, into a bridge support.

The picture on the BBC news website makes him look like the least sharp tool in the box. His audio interview reinforces the fact.

One thing worries me - how many more twerps like this are driving around on our roads?

I like the later.

At a guess most of them. Is "What to do if stuck in gear(*) and accelerator jammed" part of the test these days?

(*)erm can't you get an auto box into N when it's moving? I managed to get a hire care into R at 50mph forward on the freeway in the states. Other than a loud bang, stalled engine and a surprised me (from the bang and the fact it allowed me to do it) nothing was broke and the car drove normally for the next thousand miles or so...

Why was I waggling the gear lever on the freeway? Not used to autos, not used to being on the wrong side and I wanted to slow down.

On my 1997 Audi A4 I can switch either way between neutral and drive at any time, however it's possible that his gearbox was screwed, it's also possible that there's more to this than meets the eye. I find it hard to credit that not only he could be so dumb as to be unable to stop the car for 60 miles, but that the AA and police who he was apparently on the phone to also couldn't manage it.

"Derek" >

Yes until quite low forward speeds of 30mph perhaps.

either way

Of course he is.

Huw