A terrified 22-year-old driver thought he was going to die when a jammed cruise control trapped him in his four-wheel drive for half an hour as it raced along the Eastern Freeway.
In a scene reminiscent of thriller blockbuster Speed, the Ford Explorer’s cruise control got stuck at 80km/h as he tried to take the Burke Road exit in Melbourne’s north-east about 12.40pm.
Chase Weir today told Radio 3AW of his frantic calls to Ford and police after discovering he could not switch off the large vehicle, which was hitting speeds of more than 80km/h.
‘‘The person I spoke to at Ford service said the key wasn’t moving because it was driving in the wrong gear,’’ Mr Weir told 3AW.
‘‘At first he said ‘don’t drive the car because it’s dangerous’ and I said ‘well, that’s kind of the problem - I’m actually in the car and I cannot stop it’.’’
As the traffic got heavier, Mr Weir hung up and called Triple-O, where a police sergeant helped calm the scared motorist as the Ford sped along the freeway.
‘‘She asked me to again try turning the ignition off, put the car in neutral, put your whole body weight on the footbrake,’’ he told 3AW.
‘‘When I did that the car slowed to 80km/h but then the footbrake just became stiff, it wouldn’t go any further. So it was like I had no brakes,’’ he said.
‘‘The police sergeant told me to straight away put my hazards on and stay in the emergency lane.
‘‘It was a bit scary because every now and then you’d come up to someone sitting in the emergency lane talking on their mobile.’’
Police arrived quickly, with two cars under sirens and lights driving ahead of the tearaway four-wheel-drive to clear traffic.
‘‘Pretty much that’s all they could do until I reached Frankston and that’s just when I saw three or four lanes of traffic that wasn’t moving very fast and I’m doing 100 and I just said to her 'I’m going to die'.
‘‘And I just put all my weight on that footbrake, swerved on the wrong side of the road to avoid running into the back of everyone including other police cars, went over the concrete road island, bounced a bit.’’
Mr Weir also pulled on the handbrake, bringing the car to a halt outside the Monash University Peninsula campus - and just half a metre away from a head-on collision.
The 22-year-old, who is now recovering in Frankston Hospital, said he suffered some whiplash, and shock.
Police have taken the Ford for inspection.
‘‘Which I’m fine with,’’ Mr Weir laughed.
Ford Australia public relations manager Sinead McAlary said Ford had not experienced anything like this before.
‘‘We will be making contact with the driver as soon as possible to learn more about what took place and then get access to his vehicle to investigate the matter further," she said.
In a scene reminiscent of thriller blockbuster Speed, the Ford Explorer’s cruise control got stuck at 80km/h as he tried to take the Burke Road exit in Melbourne’s north-east about 12.40pm.
Chase Weir today told Radio 3AW of his frantic calls to Ford and police after discovering he could not switch off the large vehicle, which was hitting speeds of more than 80km/h.
‘‘The person I spoke to at Ford service said the key wasn’t moving because it was driving in the wrong gear,’’ Mr Weir told 3AW.
‘‘At first he said ‘don’t drive the car because it’s dangerous’ and I said ‘well, that’s kind of the problem - I’m actually in the car and I cannot stop it’.’’
As the traffic got heavier, Mr Weir hung up and called Triple-O, where a police sergeant helped calm the scared motorist as the Ford sped along the freeway.
‘‘She asked me to again try turning the ignition off, put the car in neutral, put your whole body weight on the footbrake,’’ he told 3AW.
‘‘When I did that the car slowed to 80km/h but then the footbrake just became stiff, it wouldn’t go any further. So it was like I had no brakes,’’ he said.
‘‘The police sergeant told me to straight away put my hazards on and stay in the emergency lane.
‘‘It was a bit scary because every now and then you’d come up to someone sitting in the emergency lane talking on their mobile.’’
Police arrived quickly, with two cars under sirens and lights driving ahead of the tearaway four-wheel-drive to clear traffic.
‘‘Pretty much that’s all they could do until I reached Frankston and that’s just when I saw three or four lanes of traffic that wasn’t moving very fast and I’m doing 100 and I just said to her 'I’m going to die'.
‘‘And I just put all my weight on that footbrake, swerved on the wrong side of the road to avoid running into the back of everyone including other police cars, went over the concrete road island, bounced a bit.’’
Mr Weir also pulled on the handbrake, bringing the car to a halt outside the Monash University Peninsula campus - and just half a metre away from a head-on collision.
The 22-year-old, who is now recovering in Frankston Hospital, said he suffered some whiplash, and shock.
Police have taken the Ford for inspection.
‘‘Which I’m fine with,’’ Mr Weir laughed.
Ford Australia public relations manager Sinead McAlary said Ford had not experienced anything like this before.
‘‘We will be making contact with the driver as soon as possible to learn more about what took place and then get access to his vehicle to investigate the matter further," she said.
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