A man was ‘kidnapped’ by his own runaway electric car and was forced to crash his vehicle after the brakes stopped working.

Brian Morrison, 54, had to barrel through red lights and phone the police from inside the car as he drove to his home in Glasgow, Scotland, on Sunday evening.

As he drove through Bishopbriggs, a town about four miles from central Glasgow, Brian said he began hearing ‘loud grinding noises’ but didn’t think much of it as it was a new car.

His new MG ZS EV fully electric vehicle had actually suffered a ‘catastrophic malfunction’ and the brake became wedged at 30mph.

Brian said: ‘I realised something was wrong when I was coming up to a roundabout, and went to slow down – but it didn’t do it.

‘Then I heard a loud grinding noise that sounded like break pads – but because it was such a new car I knew it couldn’t be a problem with them.

‘I managed to get around the roundabout going at about 30mph and then had a long road ahead of me, so I assumed it would stop without me accelerating – but it didn’t.

‘I have mobility issues, so I couldn’t even jump out – I was completely trapped inside the car going at 30mph,’ he added.

‘It might not sound like it is very fast, but when you have no control over the speed and you’re completely stuck inside it’s terrifying.’

While on the phone with police at about 10:35pm, call handlers said they had never encountered a problem like this before.

Their best bet ended up being sending three police cars to drive in front and behind Brian’s SUV for 15 minutes in a bid to slow it down.

He said: ‘I was 100% concentrating on my steering, so when a police van pulled up besides me and asked if I was Brian and if I was okay, I just yelled, “No I’m not, I can’t stop”.’

Officers tried to have Brian chuck his electronic key over to them through the window but this failed to disengage the engine.

Source:
courtesy of METRO

by Josh Milton

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