Filed under: Maintenance
UK man travels 60 miles at 130 mph with stuck accelerator
Depending on your personality a 60-mile blitz at
top speed on the highway might be a fun way to spend an afternoon, but for Kevin Nicolle, a 25-year-old UK gentleman,
his experience at terminal velocity in a malfunctioning BMW 318 was anything but fun.The accelerator pedal on Nicolle’s BMW became stuck to the floor while traveling on the A1 and because the engine kept bouncing off the rev-limiter he was unable to shift the car into neutral. The Bimmer’s brakes kept the car traveling at a reasonable rate of speed for a bit until they gave out under the stress and away Mr. Nicolle went.
Four police cars tried to keep up with the runaway 318 but couldn’t as a hysterical Nicolle tried to keep it together while swerving in and out of traffic. Unable to stop the vehicle he eventually rolled it trying to navigate a roundabout located nearly 60 miles after the ordeal began.
Nicole fortunately emerged from the wreck unharmed but severely shaken. Local police have decided not to charge the man (Gee, thanks) and BMW has requested to examine what’s left of the car.
[Thanks everyone for the tip]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Chris 5:11PM (3/13/2006)
Why not turn off the ignition with the key...
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Gregg 5:12PM (3/13/2006)
Hmm...he tried the brakes. No go (or no stop).
He could put the car in neutral because it was bouncing off of the rev-limiter. Hello! What does a "limiter" do? He wasn't going to blow the motor.
Oh, and why is it that nobody ever uses the key to just turn the damned motor off?
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Richard Warren 5:12PM (3/13/2006)
Oh pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease,
It's called the key, 1 click back, still can steer, and yep even the brakes still work for a few pumps or you just stay on em, and even after the boost is gone they still work, same for the power steering.
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Adrian 5:13PM (3/13/2006)
Couldn't shift into neutral??? HUH? Being a UK car, it's most likely a manual -- just push in the clutch and shift into neutral. WTF. He was probably worries about "damaging the engine" with it hitting the rev limiter!! What a dumb-ass!
And what kind of crappy brakes does it have? I did a test once and while in 5th gear on the highway with the accelerator floored I was easily able to slow the car down from 60mph to 40mph and could have easily stopped.
Thank god he didn't kill anyone with his stupidity! It sucked the accelerator stuck but it's not that hard of a problem to deal with.
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Phil L. 5:16PM (3/13/2006)
Hmmm - I've been able to get any car I've ever owned into neutral (auto or manual) no matter what revs the engine was turning. Something specific to that particular car?
On the other hand, his considerable skills of persuasion mean I'd like to see what he could do for me in the area of convincing the IRS that certain expenditures are, in fact, fully deductible...
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Adrian 5:17PM (3/13/2006)
YEP, if you read the article. The guy is stupid and hystarical. It was an automatic, but I think he freaked out when the engine hit the rev limiter so didn't want to put it into neutral.
There is this quote he gave when they were using jaws of life on it to get him out:
'Don't cut my car, you'll damage it' but they were saying, 'Don't worry about that mate, it's written off'
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Aki 5:19PM (3/13/2006)
Hmmm, I'm not getting how a rev limiter prevents him from stepping on the clutch and shifting it out of gear. Hard to imagine he was concerned about saving his engine if he had to swerve around cars going 130mph. If it was an automatic, you can still shift out to neutral too. Or turn off ignition.
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DKB_SATX 5:21PM (3/13/2006)
Uh yeah. Whatever. In a short-duration event I could understand someone not thinking to turn the thing off or just push in the clutch/shift the slushbox to neutral, but over the course of half an hour if it doesn't occur to him he probably isn't qualified to drive. So much for more stringent driver training and certification processes weeding out all the morons. He'd certainly have been better off risking engine damage in neutral than rolling the car trying to exit. As mentioned by several before me, the appropriate solution would have been to switch off the engine. If it has an old-fashioned key, a German car won't lock the steering wheel unless/until you remove the key, just turning it off won't lock the column even if you turn it all the way counter-clockwise. Nicolle is a knucklehead.
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Carlos 5:24PM (3/13/2006)
You guys could try reading the article.
"'I was trying to slip the car into neutral but because the car was over-revving and red-lining I couldn't do it.'
'I couldn't turn off the ignition because it would have disabled the power steering and made it even more dangerous. I was even shouting at the other drivers to get out of the way, I was getting hysterical. The traffic was getting heavier and I had to take drastic measures.'"
I don't understand why he couldn't go into neutral, but it sounds like he physically couldn't. Probably had as much to do with panic as anything else, but that's hard to fault.
He may be wrong about the ignition thing, but very few people know that. People who know nothing would turn it off all the way, and people who've read a little bit about car emergencies have "don't turn off the ignition" in their mind. That's how I learned it. While nervous, most people are just as likely to lock their steering wheel if they try anyway.
The AA should've helped him accomplish either of the above, instead of saying "hang up and call the police." So basically, no one was ready for this kind of thing.
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Philip Dunlop 5:25PM (3/13/2006)
The guy might be a knucklehead, but it didn't occur to any of you to actually read the article. The car was actually an automatic.
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Gardiner Westbound 5:28PM (3/13/2006)
He probably had to burn his shorts.
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bob dobbs 5:34PM (3/13/2006)
"I couldn't turn off the ignition because it would have disabled the power steering and made it even more dangerous."
Yeah, riiigght. The guy's a friggin moron who should have his license taken away, after serving time.
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whofan 5:36PM (3/13/2006)
At least it wasn`t a GM car. You guys would have a field with that. Could have happened in a Toyota.
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Mal Fuller 5:36PM (3/13/2006)
This story is proof positive that urban myths are alive and well in England. We're to believe that in the nearly 30 minutes that it took old Kevin to travel 60 miles it never crossed his pea-brain to just shut his Bimmer off? Yeah right! This article's picture seems to indicate that neither the defective Mr. Nicolle nor his defective BMW have suffered any damage. How amazing.
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Bruce 5:41PM (3/13/2006)
Yet another story that smells like a cow pasture.
Yeah right, can't shut off the ignition because losing power steering would be "dangerous". As if going 120mph w/o brakes is safe.
Prediction. They investigate and figure out this guy is either a looney or someone trying to somehow make a buck off of his story.
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DKB_SATX 5:46PM (3/13/2006)
I've read the article now, and I stand by my initial assessment. A car with power steering is still controllable without boost from the power steering, the effort at the steering wheel just goes up. It would be very hard to park, but not very hard to drive at speed and certainly possible to control well enough to pull over.
An automatic should go right into neutral and allow the engine to throw a cast-aluminum fit if the computer doesn't clamp down on the fuel when it overspeeds, that's why there's never an interlock to go out of Drive to Neutral, so you could just slap it into Neutral without any hindrance. Now, if he was trying to downshift to lower gears, the transmission would refuse since he was redlined in a higher gear, but that's not the same thing as just smacking it into Neutral. If it really wouldn't go into Neutral, BMW probably will end up owing him a pile of money but he still should've switched it off.
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Aki 5:51PM (3/13/2006)
Gee thanks for suggesting me to read the article, which changed nothing. Switching to neutral with the engine hitting the limiter may screw up your torque converter and engine, but I can't see how it would prevent you from switching out of gear.
I think the guy just wanted to preserve his car, and that's why he didn't want to switch gears.
"I remember saying to the fireman, 'Don't cut my car, you'll damage it'"
That's a bit odd, considering he just crashed going 100+ mph, flipped the car over and should've been happy he was alive. I'm guessing he didn't want to fry his engine and didn't shift out to neutral on purpose.
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Graham 5:52PM (3/13/2006)
Wow, what an idiot. It sounds like he rode his brakes at 70 mph, which probably burned them off. Vs. if he'd just stomped on them right away they could have stopped him. Besides that... nothing about an engine redlining should prohibit him from shifting the car into neutral. And... besides that... turn the bloody car off. Gah! Everything else on that car could have failed and the ignition key would still turn to 'off.' He wouldn't have locked the steering wheel unless he removed the key completely on that car. Besides, steering doesn't matter when you hit a roundabout at 130mph. Ultimately, it sounds like he paniced and the police and AA failed to give him useful advice.
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Speed Racer 6:02PM (3/13/2006)
Somethings fishy with this story! Not only could he have shut the ignition off at 70MPH and used unassisted steering while slowing down on a highway, but he could have slowly pulled up the emergency brake as well. Either this guy is a complete DUMBASS, a joy rider, or he wants the publicity. " I would buy another BMW" Do I see an ad in the making?? What I find equally intriguing is that he is QUOTED as saying "70 MILES per hour" and "100 MILES per hour" Wouldn't he have said kilometers?? ...and they put me in jail for a weekend for 95 in a 50 zone at 3AM!!!
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Speed Racer 6:02PM (3/13/2006)
Somethings fishy with this story! Not only could he have shut the ignition off at 70MPH and used unassisted steering while slowing down on a highway, but he could have slowly pulled up the emergency brake as well. Either this guy is a complete DUMBASS, a joy rider, or he wants the publicity. " I would buy another BMW" Do I see an ad in the making?? What I find equally intriguing is that he is QUOTED as saying "70 MILES per hour" and "100 MILES per hour" Wouldn't he have said kilometers?? ...and they put me in jail for a weekend for 95 in a 50 zone at 3AM!!!
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