Interesting/worrying story from Scotland - ZS with no brakes.

I read that story (in something other than the Sun) earlier. It sounds pretty fishy to me, I would guess at a psychological episode or something getting wedged on the throttle peddle before I concluded that there was a coincidence of this many different faults generating that many different effects. Just the fact that he called the press to claim that he was kidnapped by his car is enough to make me wonder.
 
Taxman said:
I read that story (in something other than the Sun) earlier. It sounds pretty fishy to me, I would guess at a psychological episode or something getting wedged on the throttle peddle before I concluded that there was a coincidence of this many different faults generating that many different effects. Just the fact that he called the press to claim that he was kidnapped by his car is enough to make me wonder.
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Yes. It alls sounds really odd. But, to give them their due, it looks as though the police were pretty clued up.
 
Lovemyev said:
After reading the story kindly posted by @N2STY.
It appears that Brian had only had his EV for a short while, was this Brians first EV ?.
Was it possible that the adaptive cruise control / pro pilot had been engaged inadvertently ???.
This would account for the car maintaining its steady speed, but does not answer the question why it did not disengage when the foot brake was pressed ?.
Had the floor carpet rode up over pedals ?.
What did the police officer simply do, to turn off the car when they brought it to a total stop ✋??.
It’s strange one alright !.
I am sure many other owners will be eagerly awaiting both the insurance and MG’s evaluation / investigation into the cause of this incident.
Regardless if it is “man or machine” at fault here, it really is not something anybody would willingly want to be subjected to or happen again on another vehicle.
I am sure other motoring authorities like the DOT and the MAA will be monitoring the progress on this story.
It really goes without saying that this requires very urgent attention now, in order to establish the true cause of this serious incident.
I expect that both the MG CS switch board and the MG dealers switchboards, will be bombarded with calls over the next few days. Owners wanting some concrete reassurances that their cars are still safe to be used !.
Of course the anti EV lobbyists will jump right onto top of this story, but it fairness it would be the same if it was an ICE car.
I clearly remember an MG owner on this forum, that suffered from a complete brake failure when his wife was driving with their child onboard.
Luckily nobody was injured and no damage was sustained to the car.
A very new car that suddenly lost all of its brake fluid.
The cause of the problem was quickly identified as a flexible rear brake hose that had been incorrectly routed and unsecured by a simple metal clip at the bodyshell.
This caused the rim of the road wheel to come into contact with the rubber flexible brake hose and slowly it cut right through the pipe.
All of the brake fluid was lost and therefore the brakes failed ?.
Phantom braking is not a nice thing to endure but this is the complete opposite and must have been a terrible thing to be put through.
Click to expand...
With the main brakes failed, you simply remove your foot from the throttle pedal and apply and hold the parking brake switch, it'll make an awful noise and shudder and you'll stop within a few 100 yards at the very most. The fact this reads as if the driver continued to charge ahead for ages, whilst the police mobilised in force, running red lights, then having to be stopped by ramming a braking police van, like some sort of action movie is absurd. He either did it on purpose, or is a cretin of the highest order. Either way, he shouldn't be driving. I wonder how much the scummy, anti EV, press has paid him so far for the good work he's done for their cause?!
 
This story was featured on the morning edition of the Daily Mail webpage and concluded with the comment that MG UK had been contacted for a comment.

As the story seems to have disappeared from the afternoon edition, I think I can guess what MG's reaction was!

EDIT.....just found article much further down the page; unfortunately it's been linked to a few other EV incidents and collected some anti-EV comments.....
 
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"I was kidnapped by my runaway electric car ..." sounds like a line from 'Would I Lie to You', but it could have been nasty. Glad he's OK though.
 
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No disrespect to the guy who seems to have suffered as a result of this however having just watched his video recalling the incident I have a few issues that I would like clarifying.

1) If I found myself in a runaway car at 15mph, the last person I would be calling would be my wife/partner. Obviously it would be the police.
2) His partner rather quickly got ready, entered her car, traced the runaway car and managed on her own to block off several junctions so he could pass freely. After the first junction I presume she then overtook said runaway car and blocked off next junction on so on. This sounds very bizarre!!!
3) Eventually he called the police. Now the police simply can't muster numerous resources and intercept said car. There are very few mobile police resources patrolling these days. This takes time and a lot of coordination. Meanwhile car is still travelling at 15 or even 30mph and by the time police intercepted him the car would have travelled several miles.
4) His description sound slide a catastrophic failure of both hydraulic brakes (possible a leak?), vehicle immobiliser system (he through keys out window) and drive system as he would not appear to have be able to engage neutral.
5) Car appears not even to have a scratch on it and he still has possession of it.

Hope the guys well and he makes further posts confirming what we would all like to hear and result of MG investigation.
 
When I first got my 2020 ZS ev, I was surprised that pressing the brake pedal didn't cut the power to the accelerator as my old Prius did.
 
Lovemyev said:
After reading the story kindly posted by @N2STY.
It appears that Brian had only had his EV for a short while, was this Brians first EV ?.
Was it possible that the adaptive cruise control / pro pilot had been engaged inadvertently ???.
This would account for the car maintaining its steady speed, but does not answer the question why it did not disengage when the foot brake was pressed ?.
Had the floor carpet rode up over pedals ?.
What did the police officer simply do, to turn off the car when they brought it to a total stop ✋??.
It’s strange one alright !.
I am sure many other owners will be eagerly awaiting both the insurance and MG’s evaluation / investigation into the cause of this incident.
Regardless if it is “man or machine” at fault here, it really is not something anybody would willingly want to be subjected to or happen again on another vehicle.
I am sure other motoring authorities like the DOT and the MAA will be monitoring the progress on this story.
It really goes without saying that this requires very urgent attention now, in order to establish the true cause of this serious incident.
I expect that both the MG CS switch board and the MG dealers switchboards, will be bombarded with calls over the next few days. Owners wanting some concrete reassurances that their cars are still safe to be used !.
Of course the anti EV lobbyists will jump right onto top of this story, but it fairness it would be the same if it was an ICE car.
I clearly remember an MG owner on this forum, that suffered from a complete brake failure when his wife was driving with their child onboard.
Luckily nobody was injured and no damage was sustained to the car.
A very new car that suddenly lost all of its brake fluid.
The cause of the problem was quickly identified as a flexible rear brake hose that had been incorrectly routed and unsecured by a simple metal clip at the bodyshell.
This caused the rim of the road wheel to come into contact with the rubber flexible brake hose and slowly it cut right through the pipe.
All of the brake fluid was lost and therefore the brakes failed ?.
Phantom braking is not a nice thing to endure but this is the complete opposite and must have been a terrible thing to be put through.
Click to expand...
"What did the police officer simply do, to turn off the car when they brought it to a total stop ✋??."

This is the million dollar question!!! The answer would solve this sorry debacle in a jiffy!
 
Rolfe said:
Here's the thread in the ZS forum, complete with (somewhat implausible, in my view) interjection from Brian himself.

Interesting/worrying story from Scotland - ZS with no brakes.

Link copied from FB. Seems genuine at first glance...
www.mgevs.com www.mgevs.com
Click to expand...
I guess it's one of those weird ones where scepticism is probably warranted, but also, as EV and especially as MG owners, we instinctively don't want it to be true.
It does remind me of that HGV driver a few years ago who the papers hailed a hero when is lorry went "out of control" to be later charged with dangerous driving.
 
Surfdog said:
No disrespect to the guy who seems to have suffered as a result of this however having just watched his video recalling the incident I have a few issues that I would like clarifying.

1) If I found myself in a runaway car at 15mph, the last person I would be calling would be my wife/partner. Obviously it would be the police.
2) His partner rather quickly got ready, entered her car, traced the runaway car and managed on her own to block off several junctions so he could pass freely. After the first junction I presume she then overtook said runaway car and blocked off next junction on so on. This sounds very bizarre!!!
3) Eventually he called the police. Now the police simply can't muster numerous resources and intercept said car. There are very few mobile police resources patrolling these days. This takes time and a lot of coordination. Meanwhile car is still travelling at 15 or even 30mph and by the time police intercepted him the car would have travelled several miles.
4) His description sound slide a catastrophic failure of both hydraulic brakes (possible a leak?), vehicle immobiliser system (he through keys out window) and drive system as he would not appear to have be able to engage neutral.
5) Car appears not even to have a scratch on it and he still has possession of it.

Hope the guys well and he makes further posts confirming what we would all like to hear and result of MG investigation.
Click to expand...

To be fair, one can't rely too much on detail included in a press article of that nature. Even if Brian related exactly what happened to the journalist, by the time the copy is written up it might say something entirely different. I'm prepared to believe that he called the police first, but then called his partner for assistance while waiting for the police to show up.

The presence of another car apparently escorting the "runaway" car and keeping other road users away from the vehicle is another very fishy part of the story to me though. Organising that on the fly in the middle of the incident seems highly implausible. Having someone else on hand to ensure that there isn't an accident involving another member of the public when a planned stunt is on the go seems very prudent though. Imagine if he had hit Mr A N Other on the way. There's going to be one hell of an insurance investigation at the very least, to test his story.
 
He probably put on his cruise control, panicked and pushed the accelerator instead of the brake. He may sincerely believe the brake didn't work, the mind can fill in the blanks with nonsense, but given that they're mechanical it's very unlikely that he could push the pedal and have no result.
 
bear1 said:
I guess it's one of those weird ones where scepticism is probably warranted, but also, as EV and especially as MG owners, we instinctively don't want it to be true.
It does remind me of that HGV driver a few years ago who the papers hailed a hero when is lorry went "out of control" to be later charged with dangerous driving.
Click to expand...

People stage planned stunts for clicks or even (perhaps in this case) to be paid by newspapers for their story all the time. The presence of Brian's partner in another car escorting the "runaway" and keeping other traffic away from its path is to me a rather suspicious ingredient. We're supposed to believe that he phoned her after the incident began and she showed up to do escort duty before the police got there. Right...
 
YaR said:
He probably put on his cruise control, panicked and pushed the accelerator instead of the brake. He may sincerely believe the brake didn't work, the mind can fill in the blanks with nonsense, but given that they're mechanical it's very unlikely that he could push the pedal and have no result.
Click to expand...

I appreciate that this was a ZS and I only have experience with the MG4, but you can accelerate through the set cruise control speed. If you have your foot on the accelerator, thinking it's the brake, the car would not limit itself to the set speed. You'd have all the ingredients for the classic "wild ride" high-speed scenario. And if you pressed the brake the cruise control would cancel and the car would stop.
 
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