Dave Plowman (News)
I had a student friend in the 80's who did. He had a habit of coasting with the key in and ignition off down a particularly steep hill with one sharp bend in it. One day the steering lock engaged and he got away with it - just. He was white as a sheet when we went to get him.
I have known one or two cars where the steering lock was fussy about disengaging too so I would plan on being prepared for it coming on if I was going to deliberately switch off the engine at high speed.
At speed the steering will not be so bad without power buttist, and the brake servos would have a few seconds of power buttist after switch off even if the engine stopped turning immediately (which it would not).
What still puzzles me is why the emergency services didn't talk the guy through switching off and braking hard. It was the obvious choice.
And is it really the case that you cannot take a BMW auto out of drive once a certain speed is reached? It seems a pretty odd feature! There are steep gradients where this could also get you into trouble.
What really puzzles me is that automotive systems generally fail safe where possible. Clutches disengage, fuel pumps stop, accelerators go to idle - so how exactly did this one get stuck at maximum throttle?
Regards, Martin Brown
