A driver has told how he was ‘kidnapped‘ by his runaway electric car and forced to dodge red lights and roundabouts.
Could your EV kidnap YOU?
Brian Morrison, 53, from Glasgow, said he was heading home from work on Sunday night when he said his brand new MG ZS EV became stuck at 30mph.
Police were forced to stop the runaway car by allowing it to slowly crash into their police van.
MG Motor UK said it was trying to resolve the matter.
A spokesman said: ‘MG Motor UK has 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 are making every effort to resolve matters quickly and comprehensively for him.’
Police Scotland confirmed it had responded to ‘a driver unable to stop his electric car’.
What happened?
Mr Morrison said his car suffered a ‘catastrophic malfunction’ and became stuck at 30mph on the A803 heading towards Kirkintilloch, near Glasgow.
He said he was lucky that the incident had taken place after 22:00 on a Sunday night when the roads were quiet.
‘I realised something was wrong when I was coming up to a roundabout and went to slow down but it didn’t do it,’ he said.
‘Then I heard a loud grinding noise that sounded like brake 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.’
Mr Morrison has mobility issues, so he was unable to escape the car travelling at 30mph by jumping out.
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.’
999 – the saving line
Mr Morrison initially called his wife in a panic to ask her to warn vehicles ahead of him that he could not stop his car.
He called 999 when he grew concerned about crashing into pedestrians and navigating more roundabouts and traffic lights.
‘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.’
