Stuck Accelerator Takes Woman On Ride Over 110 mph

[DeSwiss]

Published on Aug 27, 2012 by viralmediaglobal

A woman was filmed frantically swerving to avoid fellow drivers after her accelerator allegedly became stuck down on a US highway.

Lori Ubelstad barreled down the interstate highway in Missouri last Sunday at speeds of up to 190km/h, zigzagging through traffic, weaving through a construction zone and careening down the motorway's grassy median strip just to avoid a catastrophic smash.

Ms Ubelstad called 911 to explain her predicament and soon State Highway Patrol officers were dispatched to catch up with the runaway 2011 Kia Sorrento and clear other vehicles from its path.

She said she tried everything to stop her car — slamming on the brakes, turning off the engine, applying the emergency brake, shifting out of drive — but none of it worked.

The state troopers captured some of the high-adrenaline incident on their dashboard cameras.

"Every [steering wheel] correction is more subtle when you are going over 100 mph [160km/h] and for her to drop down in a grass median filled with holes and come back up was amazing," said Sgt. Sheldon Lyon of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, adding that she performed that stunt at least eight times.

After a 35-minute ordeal covering 95km, Ms Ubelstad was able to stop her car by following the troopers' directions to lift up the accelerator while applying the brake.

"She put herself in life-and-death situations several times," said Lyon.

"I feel sorry for her, but she did an outstanding job of controlling that vehicle in difficult circumstances. She overcame so many obstacles."

- Aside from surviving this ordeal and not crashing into someone and killing them, you know what the other best part of all this is? The cop forgot to taze her.......

[ret5hd]

1. The cop forgot to taze her.......

maybe 'cause of her skin tone?

[DeSwiss]

5. Nope....

...she wasn't pregnant.

[TrogL]

2. How in hell would shutting off the ignition fail to kill the car?

Computer malfunction? Do I smell "recall"?

[godai]

3. It's probably a push button and didn't work. Electronic problem.

I used to think that was the solution, along with putting the car in neutral, but, with new electronic everything, that may not work.

Everyone should know the pull the accelerator fix. Apparently it worked here. That's electronic also and must have stuck wide open.

[mazzarro]

8. What does that mean?

"pull the accelerator and apply the brake" -- does this mean prying up the accelerator pedal? I am not sure I understand what the instruction is.

[godai]

10. Not 100% sure but may relate to a cruise control issue.

I read somewhere before that they were thinking some of these situations related to a faulty cruise control situation. Maybe, if that's the case, the accelerator is positioned at the high speed setting and pulling it releases it. Good luck pulling the accelerator while going 100 mph and pushing the brake petal but it seemed to work in this case.

Everything is electronically linked in newer cars, too much so, I think.

[marions ghost]

19. not sure I understand

what you mean by pulling the accelerator... how would she have done that?

[godai]

25. Either foot under accelerator or, reach down and pull it.

It seems that the accelerator was stuck wide open. When you push the accelerator on newer cars, this turns a dial of some sort, sending a signal to accelerate. Seems it was stuck down since pulling it finally slowed the vehicle. Could have been floormat related also.

[marions ghost]

36. thanks

...back to the drawing board.

This should never happen. She was so lucky & deserves all kinds of credit for the way she handled it.

[liberal N proud]

4. Did Kia buy their parts from the same supplier as Toyota

[DeSwiss]

6. Probably.

Hyundai?

[godai]

7. Korean and Japanese cars? Unlikely. Ford's had a similar problem. n/t

[liberal N proud]

15. If they are built in the US...

Very likely that all three share suppliers.

[L0oniX]

9. "turning off the engine" didn't work??? WTF

Bullshit! Engines do not run when the key is turned off ...it's physics.

[godai]

11. New cars don't have a key. It's a push button. n/t

[Skittles]

26. what about putting it in neutral?

would that help?

[Submariner]

30. With so much torque on the tranny gears

from the power applied by the engine from constant acceleration, the shift lever frequently won't budge, or the electronic shifter won't activate under heavy power, or so my car nut buddy tells me..

[cpwm17]

12. I had a vehicle where the accelerator cable would stick sometimes

I be driving down the freeway and suddenly I would accelerate. I would just quickly lift the accelerator and everything would be fine. It also happened once in neutral which damaged the spark plugs. After that I got the cable replaced.

[HopeHoops]

13. So much of it is computer controlled now, you really aren't in control most of the time.

Hell, there's not even a physical link between the accelerator and brake pedals to their respective components. The only physical link is the emergency brake and that won't do shit at a buck 20.

[RKP5637]

27. Yep! Last time I tried to use an emergency brake for a true emergency the cable broke. One is

lucky anymore on some of these cars if it even works well as a parking brake.

[HopeHoops]

35. I always ask them to check the tension on it when I get a car serviced - saved me once.

I blew a brake line on a steep hill - right through a red light. By the time I'd reached the bottom of the hill I was going at a pretty good clip. On the way up the other side, I waited until the car came to a stop (as it was about to head back down backwards) and pulled the emergency brake and threw it in park. I probably would have ended up in the river if I'd tried to swing back and forth with no brakes.

[lumberjack_jeff]

14. Pull up the accelerator pedal?

This only works if the problem was that something (e.g. the floor mat) was holding it down.

[rexcat]

16. I am glad I have a manual transmission!

putting it neutral is not be a problem.

[ThoughtCriminal]

18. That should also work in an automatic

but I haven't owned one for years, so maybe that has changed.

[rexcat]

23. You would think but...

the new automatic transmissions can be tied into the computer system but it looks like the whole system on the woman's SUV glitched in a major way.

[Pilotguy]

17. Not believable...

What are the chances of experiencing a stuck accelarator, total brake failure, transmission failure, and ignition failure all at the same time. There's got to be more to this story.

[secondvariety]

20. Nice driving-

Ms. Ubelstad is ready for the NASCAR circuit.

[Scuba]

22. +1

[Joe Shlabotnik]

21. Call me old fashioned,

but I think too much control and responsibility is taken away from drivers now with the level of computerization, in the name of fuel economy, safety and comfort.

[530jonathan]

24. stuck accelerator

I work on cars for a living and let me tell you they are WAY too over complicated. Chances are this was a push button start vehicle. The vehicle would logically think "why the hell are you telling me to turn off engine when going 80+ mph and accelerating!!" So it would just simply ignore that command. Im surprised shifting into neutral didnt work. Some cars no longer have a mechanical connection between the shifter and the transmission, so this may be once again the car thinking for you and saying "you are still accelerating, why would i shift into neutral??". The designers prob eliminated the shifter cable to save weight (not joking) to meet the ever stringent economy and pollution standards, which are both helped by reducing weight. While this savings may seem insignificant, it adds up quickly with more systems going electronic. (ie. electric parking brake: no brake cables, no handbrake lever, lighter calipers, ect). Its kinda scary that soon these cars will just drive themselves!! My guess is that her accelerator pedal simply got stuck under the floormat, and this car wasnt equipped with a system that deactivates acceleration when it sees the brakes being applied.

[RKP5637]

28. That is going to be scary when the cars will just drive themselves ... it seems I read or heard

that might be available in about 10 years? There's testing going on now. The one I was reading about does not use GPS for guidance, it scans objects in its vicinity, something like that ... Anyway, I can just imagine a horrible pileup due to a computer glitch someplace.

I agree, cars are getting ridiculously "WAY too over complicated."

I don't work on cars for a living, but I've worked on enough of them to know exactly what you mean.

[2on2u]

29. There are far far better ways to get

back to the future.

[darkangel218]

31. Holy Shit!! i probably wouldve freaked out and crushed :/

[rrneck]

32. All cars should have kill switches.

A big red "slapit" button that shuts it down.

[darkangel218]

33. Notice when she "stopped", the car wasnt completely stopped

The cop had to jump in, which means something was really wrong with the transmission, or maybe it was in neutral. Poor lady, I'm glad she's ok.

[PADemD]

34. That happened to my old car, too.

I had my foot on the brake and was going 55 mph. I managed to pull off the shoulder and turn off the engine.

I called AAA, and everything was fine until the tow truck arrived. It was a new tow truck.

My son had arrived to pick me up and was parked slightly ahead of the tow truck. He could see the tow truck in his rear view mirror.

The tow truck driver hooked up my car to load it onto the truck bed; and instead of putting it in neutral, I started the engine. BIG MISTAKE! The car took off and hit and broke the upright lights on the tow truck. I thought I was going to do a Dukes of Hazard over the tow truck. My son watched it all in his rear view mirror.

The towing company took the car to a local garage for repair. The Manager told the auto repairman, DON'T START THAT CAR!
He did anyway and the car almost crashed into the garage wall.

[Lars77]

37. I could never understand how stuff like this happens. Just hit the damn breaks?

Modern cars have breaks that can lock up the wheels (until the ABS kicks in) at any speed. Even with the gas pedal floored it must be possible to make the car slow down using the breaks, unless the master pump fails.

Also, it came to a stop after she was advised to "pull the accelerator and break at the same time". She never thought of that during 35 minutes of driving like that?

This is just weird.