Just like the film Speed, but no terrorists or buses – the story of a man stuck in Cruise Control!
An Australian driver is recovering from shock this week after a terrifying car ride across Melbourne. The driver, Chase Weir (22), was nearing his motorway exit when he realised that the cruise control in his Ford Explorer was not going to disengage, allowing him to slow down for his exit. Instead, Weir had to weave in and out of city traffic, honking his horn and flashing his lights just to get other vehicles out of his path as he helplessly careered down the road at 50mph. For thirty minutes, Weir was convinced he was going to die and covered a distance of 25 miles during his ordeal.
Weir did everything he could to disengage the cruise control, he frantically thumped on the footbrake, pulled on the handbrake and even tried to turn off the engine and remove the ignition key but to no avail.
Quickly running out of options, Weir made a desperate call to the police. With the help of the police, he was able to miss most of the traffic he encountered, narrowly avoiding creating a trail of destruction behind him. The car only came to a stop when he saw he was going to hit a queue of traffic, so the terrified driver put all his weight on the footbrake and pulled on the handbrake, swerving into the other side of the road.
Chase Weir commented,
“I could hear the tyres skidding on the road for what seemed like forever.
“I was convinced that I was going to die.”
Ford issued a statement saying that frozen cruise control was not an issue the company had encountered before, however, if you search Google for cruise control problems, over half a million results pop up. It seems as though Ford may be denying a long established problem. Back in 2005, Ford recalled a number of vehicles due to cruise control related problems.
Some commentators have been dismissive of Weir’s story but we would love to know what you think about cruise control faults you may have encountered.
Funny story of the month:
Two fraudsters who were involved in a ridiculous scam to take driving tests on behalf of dozens of cheats were jailed after admitting conspiracy to defraud.
Ali Abdallah, 28 and Muktar Nuren, 22 are both from Manchester and targeted test centres in Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, Yorkshire and East London.
Their own lawyers described their client’s plan as ‘abysmal’ and ‘spectacularly unsophisticated’ as staff at testing centres recognised the two men who were regular visitors and looked nothing like the photographs on the licences they presented.
Police used CCTV footage to link them to the scam.
Some serial impersonators often use false beards, wigs and make up to disguise themselves and repeatedly use the same test centres. 616 cases of impersonation have been reported in the last year.
Failing 33 of the 43 tests they completed, their ‘no pass, no fee’ promise would surely soon leave the hapless duo out of pocket. Those observing the case may be inclined to wonder if the pair should be banned from driving too if they can fail so many driving tests.
When sentencing, Judge Andrew Blake addressed the defendants, telling them, “Luckily, the safeguards that are in place did find you out, but the fraud nevertheless ran for 18 months.”
An investigation has now been launched to locate the drivers who obtained their licences fraudulently through Abdallah and Nuren.
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