There is another of those “my car accelerated out of control” stories that seem to become fashionable from time to time. On the Guardian website is a story about about a Frenchman named Frank Lecerf who could not slow his car, a Renault Laguna. The gas pedal seemed to become jammed at about 60 mph. According to the Guardian story, every time Frank applied the brake the car went faster. Eventually he was going 125 mph. Police drove interference for him, clearing other cars out of the way and calling ahead to have toll stations raise their barriers for him. He drove at high speed for over 125 miles into Belgium before running out of gas, at which point he “crashed into a ditch.”
This isn’t the first time I’ve read about automobiles accelerating out of control while their helpless drivers call 911. When I read about a runaway automobile, what I wonder is this: do none of these cars have ignition switches? Do none of these cars have clutches? Do none of these cars have automatic transmissions with a Neutral position on the shift lever? Do none of these cars have power brakes?
One of my college-days cars was a 1960 Plymouth. One day I decided to overhaul the carburetor. I bought a carb rebuild kit and carb cleaner. I took the carburetor apart, cleaned it, and replaced some of its parts with parts from the rebuild kit. When I was installing the newly cleaned carburetor onto the intake manifold, I had to choose whether to use the old carb-to-manifold gasket which was quite thick, or the much thinner gasket that came with the kit. I decided to use the new gasket. As things turned out, that was a bad choice, as the reason for the extra-thick gasket was to prevent the accelerator linkage at the carburetor from getting jammed against the intake manifold.
I took the Plymouth to a lightly-traveled industrial road to test the engine performance. I put the gas pedal to the floorboard, the Plymouth’s engine roared, and the car flew down the road ... fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty miles per hour. I removed my foot from the gas pedal and the pedal remained glued to the floor. The accelerator linkage was jammed. I reached for the ignition key and turned the key to OFF. Immediately there was a loud “BANG!” It was like a backfire but louder. I braked and steered the Plymouth to the shoulder. I got out and walked around the Plymouth, inspecting it. I knelt down and looked under the car. The muffler had exploded, and the inside parts of the muffler, looking like tin cans with dozens of small holes drilled through, were hanging out of the split-open muffler. I had to buy a muffler, but stopping the car was easy enough.
Later, I had an experience with a 1974 Chevy van. While driving at about 60 mph, I took my foot off the gas and the Chevy didn’t decelerate. The linkage to the gas pedal had become entangled in vacuum lines around the carburetor. I easily slowed the Chevy using its power brakes, pulled onto the road’s shoulder, and stopped. I switched off the racing engine and put the vehicle into Park. I got out and raised the hood and found the problem right away. Although I routed the vacuum lines away from the accelerator linkage as best as I could, I experienced the problem again. And as before, stopping the van by using its brakes was easy enough to do.
I have a friend whose car accelerated out of control. She braked but the car went faster. She drove through front yards and hedges, over patio tables and lawn chairs, until finally she looked down and saw that her foot was on the gas pedal. Anytime someone says, “Every time I applied the brake, the car went faster,” you know they had their foot on the gas.
At the end of Frank Lecerf’s story he says when the car finally ran out of gas in Belgium, he crashed into a ditch. What? He drives 125 miles at speeds up to 125 mph without hitting anything and when his car runs out of gas and is coasting to a stop, he “crashes into a ditch.” Really? Something is very fishy here.
Horses, on the other hand, are a different matter. I can tell you from personal experience, they really can, and do, suddenly and unexpectedly accelerate out of control. Or stop when you want them to go. They have no seatbelts, they have no airbags, they have hard seats, no emergency brake, and people ride those dangerous things and call it fun! Give me internal combustion any day.
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