Driver Calls Police For Help When Cruise Control Gets Stuck At 120 MPH
POSTED: 7:29 am EDT October 5, 2004
PARIS -- A motorist in France went a little faster than he wanted when he claimed his cruise control got stuck, leaving him barreling down a busy highway at 120 mph and forcing police to help clear a route.
The Le Parisien newspaper quoted Hicham Dequiedt saying he was overtaking a truck when his Renault Vel Satis started to accelerate with a life of its own. He couldn't cut the ignition, he said, because his car has a magnetic card instead of a key.
"It was impossible to slow down! Stomping on the brakes proved pointless, nothing worked. I avoided one car after another by flashing my lights at them," the 29-year-old was quoted as saying.
Dequiedt managed, however, to alert police on his mobile phone. Messages warning other motorists of the danger were flashed up on screens that straddle the highway and over a traffic radio station, Le Parisien said.
Finally, as he was bearing down on a toll booth, Dequiedt said he finally managed to bring the car to a halt -- having raced down some 125 miles of highway between Vierzon and Riom in central France.
"I stomped on the brakes as hard as I could and the car finally stopped," he said.
