Car decapitates man - Daily Fail link inside

Another possible theory, he wanted to drive fast, but to avoid getting a speeding ticket he proactively rang the police to make excuses planning to eventually claim it fixed itself and he'd take it to a garage first thing but lost control before then?

Would explain why the throttle was pinned, the brakes didnt work, why he didnt try the handbrake, why it wouldnt drop out of gear and why he couldnt turn the engine off
 
v0n said:
The FL variant of Octavia (as pictured in the article) doesn't have start stop button/keyless entry. It also has no sports and normal mode the victim allegedly describes. Kessy was available as an option from 2013 onwards and so was dynamic control. However in that case cruise control would be active type and would automatically decelerate before plowing anything stationary.

I am not aware of any known fault in dual clutch DSG or regular manual on any VAG cars that would create "It is not stopping at neutral" scenario.

Sounds like slow news day at Daily Meh for me.
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Looking at the other articles on it, they show the newer Octavia and advise the car hit the lorry at 94mph, the systems that fully record the pre crash data were destroyed in the impact but they know from the airbag system it was doing 116mph 5 seconds before impact. The radar cruise system may have tried to slow it down but was going too fast to prevent an impact (if cruise was even on)

I have never tried moving a DSG box to neutral when at full throttle but I know from my manual car it easily moves to neutral when cruising but when on full throttle it wouldn't pull out of gear easily, I didn't want to force it out in case I damaged the box.
 
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adolf hamster said:
Another possible theory, he wanted to drive fast, but to avoid getting a speeding ticket he proactively rang the police to make excuses planning to eventually claim it fixed itself and he'd take it to a garage first thing but lost control before then?

Would explain why the throttle was pinned, the brakes didnt work, why he didnt try the handbrake, why it wouldnt drop out of gear and why he couldnt turn the engine off
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Or he already been flashed by a speed camera at over 100mph and was trying to get out of it
 
chaparral said:
Or he already been flashed by a speed camera at over 100mph and was trying to get out of it
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Smart thinking.

Either way i highly doubt that all the electrical and mechanical faults/design flaws would have happened simaltaneously for the car to be the true cause of this, there's definately some human input of either confusion, panic or stupidity
 
adolf hamster said:
Another possible theory, he wanted to drive fast, but to avoid getting a speeding ticket he proactively rang the police to make excuses planning to eventually claim it fixed itself and he'd take it to a garage first thing but lost control before then?

Would explain why the throttle was pinned, the brakes didnt work, why he didnt try the handbrake, why it wouldnt drop out of gear and why he couldnt turn the engine off
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Yeah except the bit where he examines the back of a trailer.


Seems neat how much info the manufacturer can fish out of the car. Guess its no big expense to record a few things in the case of an accident.
 
Hotwired said:
Yeah except the bit where he examines the back of a trailer.


Seems neat how much info the manufacturer can fish out of the car. Guess its no big expense to record a few things in the case of an accident.
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Thats why i said he lost control, using a mobile phone while driving is already known to be distracting let alone while trying to keep a car stable on winter roads doing over the ton
 
Mine cruise once stuck on in an old 2002 peugeot 406 3.0 v6 estate.
Those had small 2.0 brakes and the car overpowered the brakes I couldnt stop it. In the end I turned it off with the key, turned out to be a rusty throttle cable (crusie was mechanical)
 
Also says he kept pressing the stop/start button. Should have just pushed it once, I bet he kept turning it back on again. :(
 
Brakes and electrics all go haywire at the same time? Independent mechanical and electrical systems malfunctioning in harmony?
My dog ate my homework....
 
breadturbo said:
Mine cruise once stuck on in an old 2002 peugeot 406 3.0 v6 estate.
Those had small 2.0 brakes and the car overpowered the brakes I couldnt stop it.
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That is a point..

Stopping a big car that doing over 100mph takes a lot of brake force,
Trying to stop a big car that doing over 100mph which also has it throttle jammed on most be a nightmare..(Would the brakes over heat first ?)

Has anyone else here tried braking from high speed while there throttle is still pressed ?
 
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chaparral said:
That is a point..

Stopping a big car that doing over 100mph takes a lot of brake force,
Trying to stop a big car that doing over 100mph which also has it throttle jammed on most be a nightmare..

Has anyone else here tried braking from high speed while there throttle is still pressed ?
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No, but by the sounds of the article he didnt try it either.

I highly doubt the handbrake would do much, i've yet to meet one that isnt totally useless, but the footbrake especially at such a high speed the engines power will be mainly taken up by drag forces so wont have much left to fight modern discs
 
My RS4 used to kill the throttle when I braked after a couple of seconds, made left foot braking a no go for me. Most modern cars will out brake the throttle too, but you need distance.
 
Seems like another case of driver error, just like the Tesla whereby the woman driver claimed the car accelerated by itself and her husband (unsurprisingly) backed her up, even though Tesla's logging showed the throttle was depressed at the time :/
 
I know some of the old Lexuses used to "get stuck" if the battery/alternator died while you were driving along. Happened to a friend when he was entering a motorway in an LS200. The only way he could stop was to put the car in neutral and roll to a halt. They did a recall to "fix" it on some models, but it happens to others as well. That is the problem with everything being electronically controlled :/

I can't see cruise control alone doing this though.
 
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I seem to recall a few Toyota drivers claiming stuff like this happened including one in the states where some bloke was on the phone for like twenty minutes to the police.
Toyota checked and found no mechanical faults and in one case believed it to be caused by the carpet getting stuck under the accelerator pedal. They still couldn't work out why the driver didn't stick it in neutral...
 
Dis86 said:
I seem to recall a few Toyota drivers claiming stuff like this happened including one in the states where some bloke was on the phone for like twenty minutes to the police.
Toyota checked and found no mechanical faults and in one case believed it to be caused by the carpet getting stuck under the accelerator pedal. They still couldn't work out why the driver didn't stick it in neutral...
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But Toyota has done a accelerator pedal recall & a floor mat recall on millions of cars if I remember right....
 
chaparral said:
But Toyota has done a accelerator pedal recall & a floor mat recall on millions of cars if I remember right....
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Wasnt that the post 2004 yaris? I remember because i was driving one at the time (albeit a 2002 one), thought it was to do with the throttle cable getting stuck.

Again the whole american doing 90 down the freeway and not dropping into neutral or indeed just turning the car off surprised me.
 
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