Man 'kidnapped' by his runaway electric car - forcing him to call police to ram him off the road
A man says he was ''kidnapped'' by his own runaway electric car - forcing him to dodge red lights and roundabouts and call police to ram it off the road.
Brian Morrison, 53, says his new posh motor started driving itself - and he had to dial 999 from inside.
He had been heading home from work on Sunday (1/10) when he says his brand new electric car decided to take control - and the brakes wouldn't work.
Becoming stuck at 30mph he says his MG ZS EV fully electric vehicle suffered a ''catastrophic malfunction''.
Brian called police who were forced to forcibly stop the runaway car by allowing it to slowly crash into their police van.
Even after forcing the car to a halt Brian says that the car tried to keep moving once police tried moving their vehicle.
A roadside repair mechanic later said they had 'never seen' anything like the incident.
Brian, from Glasgow, Scotland, said that he was 'lucky' that the incident had taken place late at night at just after 10pm.
He 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 roundabout going at about 30mph, and and then had 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.
"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."
Brian initially called his wife in a panic to ask her to warn cars ahead of him that he could not stop his car.
After realising that he would soon have to navigate traffic lights and several roundabouts, and worried about crashing into pedestrians and pub-goers headed home, he eventually called 999.
He said: “The car was just running away on its own, there was nothing I could do.
"When I dialed 999, they sent police to help and put some engineers on the line to try and solve the problem, and they were asking if it was a self-driving car.
"It was the first time that the call handlers had experienced the issue, and they had no idea what to do.
''So eventually three police vehicles arrived and were driving in front of me and behind me.
"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 cant stop'."
Police initially tried having Brian throw his electronic key through their van window before driving off - but this failed to disengage the engine.
After that, they tried to get Brian to forcibly shut off the engine by pressing the power button three times, which also failed.
He then was asked to hold the power button for over two seconds, which also failed to stop the car.
Brian Morrison, 53, says his new posh motor started driving itself - and he had to dial 999 from inside.
He had been heading home from work on Sunday (1/10) when he says his brand new electric car decided to take control - and the brakes wouldn't work.
Becoming stuck at 30mph he says his MG ZS EV fully electric vehicle suffered a ''catastrophic malfunction''.
Brian called police who were forced to forcibly stop the runaway car by allowing it to slowly crash into their police van.
Even after forcing the car to a halt Brian says that the car tried to keep moving once police tried moving their vehicle.
A roadside repair mechanic later said they had 'never seen' anything like the incident.
Brian, from Glasgow, Scotland, said that he was 'lucky' that the incident had taken place late at night at just after 10pm.
He 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 roundabout going at about 30mph, and and then had 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.
"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."
Brian initially called his wife in a panic to ask her to warn cars ahead of him that he could not stop his car.
After realising that he would soon have to navigate traffic lights and several roundabouts, and worried about crashing into pedestrians and pub-goers headed home, he eventually called 999.
He said: “The car was just running away on its own, there was nothing I could do.
"When I dialed 999, they sent police to help and put some engineers on the line to try and solve the problem, and they were asking if it was a self-driving car.
"It was the first time that the call handlers had experienced the issue, and they had no idea what to do.
''So eventually three police vehicles arrived and were driving in front of me and behind me.
"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 cant stop'."
Police initially tried having Brian throw his electronic key through their van window before driving off - but this failed to disengage the engine.
After that, they tried to get Brian to forcibly shut off the engine by pressing the power button three times, which also failed.
He then was asked to hold the power button for over two seconds, which also failed to stop the car.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Hi, I'm Brian Morrison from Glasgow and I'm here in my electric car MG ZS EV.
00:08 Had the car approximately five and a half, six months since March and on Sunday evening
00:15 between 10pm and 11pm I was driving from Kilsyth just outside Glasgow into Bishop Briggs
00:22 and after about a mile out cycle sythe I was coming up to a roundabout and I went to slow down
00:30 and brake and there was no brakes. So I then quickly went to switch on to the park button
00:39 and the stop button here beside me and unfortunately that didn't work. All of a sudden I had about nine
00:45 different things come up on the dashboard here telling me all the different faults and then a
00:51 warning to stop the car and drive safely and then quickly rang my partner and I said I don't know
00:59 what to do. I'm sitting here in the car and it's driving on its own but it won't stop. My partner
01:05 then headed towards me from Bishop Briggs heading my way and then my partner quickly done a u-turn
01:11 and went and stopped all the traffic ahead. I got to roundabouts and traffic lights and told
01:19 people to speak to people and hazard lights and flashing the lights to tell everybody to get out
01:23 of the way. I knew I was coming to main roads ahead so I quickly had to ring 999 and explain
01:31 the situation. Within three or four minutes blue lights just came from behind in front of me and
01:37 roads were all sorted out ahead so that I could get a clear road through and the police tried to
01:46 tell me how to do the emergency stop. I did all that, the whole car malfunctioned and just kept
01:52 driving. After about 10-15 minutes the police sergeant then came up beside me and he said to
01:59 me please throw your car key out the window into the police van. The idea there was that when he
02:04 got so far away from my car that the engine should have cut out because there was no car around. Of
02:12 course the car did not function so that didn't work either. The last thing to do was an emergency
02:18 stop by actually the police asking me to crash into the back of their van. So that's what we did.
02:25 Eventually the car did come to a stop. So how are you currently feeling about the situation?
02:32 Still shaky even sitting here in the car right now. Nervous about driving again to be honest
02:41 but I need my car. I've got mobility problems and that so I need a car to get around
02:45 but it definitely won't be this car. I definitely will not. I'm just waiting for this car to
02:51 be collected and taken to my insurance company to get an investigation done.