A TERRIFIED electric car driver has told how he was forced to crash his motor into police to stop the runaway vehicle after the brakes stopped working.
Brian Morrison, 54, says he’s lucky to have avoided serious tragedy after his six-month-old electric motor malfunctioned on his drive home from work on Sunday night.
News Group Newspapers LtdBrain was left terrified after the brakes in his car stopped working[/caption]
FACEBOOKOfficer were forced to intervene to bring his car to a stop[/caption]
News Group Newspapers LtdHe was on his way home from work on Sunday when the malfunction happened[/caption]
Brian was travelling back to his home in Bishopbriggs, near Glasgow, from work in Kilsyth around 10pm when nine warning lights suddenly flashed on his dashboard and he was unable to slow down.
After hitting the brakes and discovering that the car wouldn’t stop, he was forced to call emergency services and a convoy of police raced to catch up to him.
But after 15 minutes of being escorted by cops, the decision was made by officers for Brian to bump into the back of one of their vans to bring it to a halt before they reached a busy main road.
Brian said he has been left “petrified” and fears getting back on the road in the vehicle.
He told the Scottish Sun: “I’m still a bit I’m still shaken up, to be honest. I’m all for an electric car but I didn’t expect that.
“I first realised something was wrong because I suddenly got warning lights. Within 60 seconds I had nine warning lights. I went to pull over and put my foot on the brake and nothing happened.
“I tried the park button, engine off button, everything. Then it was panic stations because it wouldn’t stop and everything was flashing.
“There was no way I could stop. I was calling it the runaway electric car.
“I had to ring 999 and they were even shocked – they told me that that never happened before and they’d never seen anything like it.
Brian called his partner who had to drive in front of him with their hazard lights on while he dialled 999.
Within minutes police cars raced to him and drove beside him, in front of him and behind him with their blue lights on.
Police worked with their engineers and tried everything to bring the EV motor to a stop.
Brian added: “The police inspector came up beside me and asked ‘can you throw the car key out the window to my window and let me drive away fast?’ what was meant to happen was that the key would become out of range and the car would cut off. But that never worked either.
“I’m very lucky. It was too risky to go left or right so I had to keep going straight on and when we got to a roundabout the police asked me if I was willing to drive into the back of them.
“I was terrified – even though I wasn’t going a fast speed it’s still worrying.
“I used to think 15mph was slow but when you’re in a car that can’t stop it’s not slow – it felt like 60mph.
“The thing is I also have a mobility problem so I thought, ‘I can’t even jump from the car. There’s nothing I can do, I just need to stay in the car.’
“So that’s what I did, I crashed into the police van – and when I got towards him he started driving off so it wasn’t as big an impact.”
Brain told how the police officer driving the van managed to brake to slow the electric motor down before it eventually turned off.
But the ordeal has had a lasting impact on Brian who has been left terrified.
He continued: “I just wanted to get out of the car, I was terrified to go back in my other car.
“I was nervous about getting back into a car and getting behind the wheel again.
“Physically I’m fine but mentally all over the place. I didn’t get home until 5.30am because I had to wait for four hours for the RAC to come get the car because it was too dangerous to drive again to take it to the garage.”
Brian’s insurance company collected the car to investigate the reason behind the malfunction – but the ordeal has put Brian off from wanting it back.
And he fears it could have been much worse if the car stopped working at a busier time or with more traffic on the road.
He said: “I’ve already told the company I’m not willing to take the car back – I want a refund, I’m still not willing to take it back even if they repair it. I won’t feel safe in it again.
“When the RAC turned up and did their diagnostics they had three pages of faults.
“The guy said he had never seen this before even the police said that they were shocked and they’d never seen anything like it.
“It’s just as well it happened on a quiet road at like 10pm-11pm on a Sunday night, the police told me that it could have been tragic if it was at a busier time or area.
“I’m still shaken. With everything in the media and from the government about electric cars I thought ‘this will be amazing’.
“I was taken in by it and was looking forward to it, I got it brand new in March.
“I didn’t expect any dangers and then in the last 24 hours, two or three people messaged me to say they had similar experiences but they didn’t care, because they put it into the garage to get it fixed.
“I was petrified, and my partner my petrified because they were worried about ‘how is this car going to stop?’”
Officers confirmed that they brought the car to a controlled halt and no one was injured as a result of the incident.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Around 10.35pm on Sunday, 1 October, we received a report of a driver unable to stop his electric car on the A803 heading towards Kirkintilloch.
“The car was travelling at a low speed and officers carried out a controlled halt with the aid of a police vehicle.
“There was no damage to either vehicle.
“The driver arranged for the vehicle to be recovered.”
MG has been approached for comment.
FACEBOOKEmergency crews raced to help Brian stop his EV motor[/caption]
FACEBOOKPolice escorted Brian until the car could be stopped[/caption]
News Group Newspapers LtdHe has been left ‘shaken up’ by the ordeal[/caption]
News Group Newspapers LtdBrian only had the car for six months when it happened[/caption]
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