Police are forced to RAM £80,000 electric Jaguar I-Pace to stop it as it raced down the busy M62 motorway without brakes after suffering system fault with terrified driver …
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Police were forced to ram an out-of-control electric car after a ‘horrifying fault’ left the eco-vehicle tearing down the busy M62 without any brakes.
Cop cars swarmed the motorway to save a driver after their runaway £80,000 Jaguar I-Pace suffered an ‘electrical fault’.
Officers from Merseyside Police[4] and Greater Manchester Police[5] used specialist tactics to ram the vehicle and block it between a number of police vehicles, to eventually bring the car to a stop.
Dramatic pictures from the scene show the black Jaguar wedged in between two Matrix patrol cruisers from Merseyside Police.
The terrifying incident unfolded on the eastbound carriageway on Wednesday, between J11 for Birchwood and J12 for Eccles.
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Dramatic pictures from the scene show the black Jaguar I-Pace wedged in between two Matrix patrol cruisers from Merseyside Police
Cop cars swarmed the motorway to save a driver after their runaway £80,000 Jaguar I-Pace suffered an ‘electrical fault’
The Jaguar I-Pace model has also been used as a rapid response vehicle (pictured) for West Midlands Ambulance Service
All lanes were closed for a short while with traffic stopped as police responded to the incident.
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Two lanes later reopened, with a further two closed, causing major delays of almost an hour and congestion backed up ahead of rush hour.
North West Motorway Police revealed what had happened on social media, writing: ‘Police currently have a lane 3 and 4 closure on M62 EB J11 to 12.
‘This is following the use of tactics to stop an electric vehicle with an electric fault where the driver was unable to brake. Motorway officers from Merseyside, Cheshire and GMP brought the vehicle to a safe stop.’
The Jaguar I-Pace is set to be discontinued before the company’s relaunch in 2025.
The car was reportedly only sold to make sure the company met its emissions targets.
The model has also been used as a rapid response vehicle for West Midlands Ambulance Service.
A Jaguar Land Rover spokeswoman said: ‘We are aware of an incident involving a Jaguar I-PACE on the M62 on the afternoon of March 6. An investigation is underway into the cause of the incident.’
A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: ‘The two Jaguar iPaces that the Trust operates have now covered over 160,000 miles without incident and have proved to be exceptionally reliable. The iPace continues to be an excellent response vehicle for us and is popular with staff.’
The Jaguar I-Pace is set to be discontinued before the company’s relaunch in 2025 (File image)
The car was reportedly only sold to make sure the company met its emissions targets (File image)
Just last year, a terrified electric car driver revealed he was kidnapped by his runaway £30,000 MG ZS EV after the vehicle suffered a ‘catastrophic malfunction’ in a bizarre case which forced him to dodge red lights and roundabouts before calling police to ram it into their van.
Brian Morrison, 53, claims he was heading home from work at around 10pm on Sunday when his new Chinese-made fully electric car began driving itself at 30mph.
Unable to use the brakes, the Glaswegian – who runs his own social enterprise – called police who stopped the vehicle by allowing it to slowly crash into their van.
Electric cars have been linked with a series of safety incidents. Concerns have been raised about fires caused by lithium-ion batteries.
MG Motor UK said: ‘We have been urgently trying to make contact with Mr Morrison so that his vehicle can be fully inspected by our engineering team. We take this matter very seriously and now that contact has been made, we will be making every effort to resolve matters quickly and comprehensively for him.’
Mr Morrison said: ‘I realised something was wrong when I was coming up to a roundabout and went to slow down but it failed to do so. Then I heard a loud grinding noise that sounded like brake pads. Because it was such a new car I knew it couldn’t be a problem with them.
Brian Morrison, 53, says he was heading home from work on Sunday when his new MG ZS EV suffered a ‘catastrophic malfunction’ and began driving itself at 30mph
Police bringing Mr Morrison’s car to a stop after the terrifying incident in Glasgow. One police car is seen behind and another van in front
Mr Morrison’s car after being brought to a halt by police following the incident in Glasgow
‘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.
‘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.’
Mr Morrison initially called his wife in a panic to ask her to come out and warn cars ahead of him that he was unable to stop.
After realising that he would soon have to navigate traffic lights and several roundabouts – and worried about crashing into pedestrians and pub-goers – he called 999.
‘The car was just running away on its own, there was nothing I could do,’ he said.
‘When I dialled 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 per cent concentrating on my steering, so when a police van pulled up beside me and asked if I was Brian and if I was okay, I just yelled ‘No I’m not, I can’t stop’.’
Police initially told Mr Morrison to throw his electronic key through their van window before driving off – but this failed to disengage the engine.
They told him to try different ways of turning off the car, but these failed.
Mr Morrison, from Glasgow, said that he was ‘lucky’ that the incident had taken place late at night at just after 10pm. Pictured here is Mr Morrison’s car (left) being stopped by police
Describing how the incident began, the driver said: ‘I realised something was wrong when I was coming up to a roundabout and went to slow down but it failed to do so’
Eventually, they told Mr Morrison to deliberately drive into the back of their van before he got into a more built-up area.
Mr Morrison said: ‘After trying to shut the car down, my entire dashboard lit up with faults, and then it all went away after a second and just had a big red car symbol that said ‘drive safely, stop driving immediately’ or something.
‘I came up to a roundabout, which slowed the car down to about 15mph, and the police van was waiting for me on the other side.
‘I went into the back of the van while it was moving, before they put on the brakes to stop me.
‘After that, a police officer jumped into my car and did something which seemed to keep the car still.
‘After I got out though, they tried moving their van and the car kept going – so they had to sit with the van there for ages until the RAC got there.
‘I still have no idea what happened, but when the RAC [mechanic] got to me about three hours later he plugged in the car to do a diagnostic check and there were pages of faults.
‘He said he had never seen anything like it, and decided he was not willing to turn the engine on to see what was wrong.’
Mr Morrison’s insurance company say they are now investigating the incident.
A Police Scotland spokesman said: ‘Around 10.35pm on Sunday, October 1, 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.’
Mr Morrison with the MG ZS EV, which costs £30,000
Mr Morrison’s insurance say they are now investigating the incident. He’s seen behind the wheel of the car
Mr Morrison’s experience isn’t the first time electric cars have raised safety concerns.
On September 24, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service rushed to a family home in Bromborough, Wirral after receiving reports that a car was on fire. The blaze was put out in just ten minutes.
The Liverpool Echo reported that the façade of the two-storey family home was blackened by the fire and that the garage was also previously on fire as well.
One man said that after speaking to the owners of the car they believed the cause of the fire was a ‘malfunctioning electric car battery’, although that was not officially confirmed[6] by the fire service.
Greater Manchester PoliceMerseyside Police[7][8]
References
- ^ Tom Cotterill (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Chris Matthews (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Rory Tingle (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Merseyside Police (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Manchester Police (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ was not officially confirmed (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Greater Manchester Police (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Merseyside Police (www.dailymail.co.uk)