A Frenchman was driving his Renault Laguna to the grocery store in France when he found that his brakes were not working. It’s not something you hear every day but when it happens it has got to be up there as a driver’s worst nightmare behind the wheel.
The man said his car went from around 60 mph hour and every time that he tried to apply the brakes, the car kept increasing speed eventually reaching an astonishing 125 mph. Maybe even more amazing is that initial reports indicate that the police did not issue a speeding ticket!
The man was quick to call the police and emergency services and quickly advised the driver to get to the highway for assistance. It was there that the police caught up with the driver and made sure that the roads were clear for miles. The man ended up driving over 100 miles away from his home until the car finally had run out of gas and stopped in a ditch, luckily no one was injured.
During the high speed chase, the police made several attempts to slow the car down and bring the vehicle to a stop. The driver said that the gas pedal of the vehicle was stuck and that it had happened before. The driver was hysterical over the event and suffered two epileptic seizures from the incident. The man has filed a legal complaint against the car manufacturer stating “endangerment of a person’s life”.
Because of a disability that the driver had, the Renault Laguna was altered to accommodate his condition. The brake and gas pedals were removed and replaced with a steering wheel based system. It is said that changing and altering the brake systems of the car would void any warranties by the manufacturer. The Renault is currently being inspected with the driver and the car maker anxiously awaiting the results.
A few years ago Toyota had to recall more than 6 million of its vehicles for faulty brakes. This was a result after several reports started surfacing of unintended acceleration. The reason was said to be that the accelerator pedal would stick causing unintended acceleration or that an issue with the floor mat would cause the accelerator to get stuck. The media ran with this story and all of a sudden Toyota was being blamed for close to 40 deaths for the problem.
The recall was made to fix the mechanical issues however since more claims of electronic failure started springing up Toyota had to take further action. Ultimately it turned out that an investigation was launched by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in conjunction with NASA only to find that there were was electronic defects in the vehicle.