Cable Forum - View Single Post - Runaway bus accelerates 'like a bullet' on London's streets and smashes into car

Stuart · 17-04-2015, 08:38

Could also have been a mechanical fault. When I was learning to drive, I went out with my mum once, in my dad's car, and the engine started racing, in a similar way to how it sounded like the bus engine did. I took my foot right off the accelerator and jammed the brake down (which did slow the car), but the engine carried on racing. I changed the gear to Neutral, which enabled me to stop the car safely and eventually managed to wrestle the engine to a stop.

Thankfully, neither my mum or I were injured, but the engine apparently needed a lot of work after that. IIRC, the throttle assembly in the engine itself had jammed, and I apparently did the best thing I could. Dad was a little peeved that I'd taken the car out and bought it back apparently needed a lot of very expensive work done on it, but was happy we were both safe.

I realise that cars and buses are very different beasts from a driving point of view (I am friends with a bus driver who did go on at some length about how different they are), and I realise that most (if not all) engines today are partly or totally computer controlled, so are very different beasts from engines made even 20 years ago, let alone 30, but I just posted this as a reminder that the fault could still be mechanical.

Having said that, I would have thought that as a safety precaution, the computer would have a sensor telling it that the throttle was open it would therefore register that, and would also register that it had not sent a command to open the throttle, and show the fault.

17-04-2015, 08:38	#3
Stuart - Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Somewhere Services: Virgin for TV and Internet, BT for phone Posts: 26,546	Re: Runaway bus accelerates 'like a bullet' on London's streets and smashes into car Could also have been a mechanical fault. When I was learning to drive, I went out with my mum once, in my dad's car, and the engine started racing, in a similar way to how it sounded like the bus engine did. I took my foot right off the accelerator and jammed the brake down (which did slow the car), but the engine carried on racing. I changed the gear to Neutral, which enabled me to stop the car safely and eventually managed to wrestle the engine to a stop. Thankfully, neither my mum or I were injured, but the engine apparently needed a lot of work after that. IIRC, the throttle assembly in the engine itself had jammed, and I apparently did the best thing I could. Dad was a little peeved that I'd taken the car out and bought it back apparently needed a lot of very expensive work done on it, but was happy we were both safe. I realise that cars and buses are very different beasts from a driving point of view (I am friends with a bus driver who did go on at some length about how different they are), and I realise that most (if not all) engines today are partly or totally computer controlled, so are very different beasts from engines made even 20 years ago, let alone 30, but I just posted this as a reminder that the fault could still be mechanical. Having said that, I would have thought that as a safety precaution, the computer would have a sensor telling it that the throttle was open it would therefore register that, and would also register that it had not sent a command to open the throttle, and show the fault.