Terrified driver gets decapitated after his cruise control ‘got stuck’

Motorist dials 999 as his car uncontrollably gained speed before crashing at 119mph into parked lorry

Terrified driver gets decapitated after his cruise control ‘got stuck’
Police say the faults the driver reported would have meant the Skoda Octavia suffered a simultaneous mechanical and electronic failure.

Kaushal Gandhi, 32, of Harrow, Middlesex, tried desperately to regain control of his Skodia Octavia and told the emergency call handler that his cruise control had got stuck.

A recording of the phone call was played to a coroner.

Mr Gandhi, who was described as a ‘meticulous’ driver, said: “My car is not coming out of cruise control, it is not letting me stop.

“It (the speedometer) shows 70mph but I think I am going much faster than this.”

The call handler replied: “Can you try to control the car’s speed using your gears?”

Mr Gandhi said: “I am trying, it is not stopping at neutral.”

He had also tried to switch off the engine by pressing the start-stop button before saying: “I have kept pressing the button but all it makes is a noise, my speed is increasing.

“I think what has happened was I tried to change the mode on the car, because I was on the sports mode.

“I pressed a button to come onto the normal mode and then it is not allowing me to do anything.”

Mr Gandhi later said his speed had “just gone 77mph” before the call handler asked if he had tried using the handbrake.

The driver said: “I haven’t tried it because at this speed I am not sure what will happen.

“I am in the middle lane right now, there is no traffic.

“Do you want me to try the hand brake?”

The call handler, sought advice from a colleague about applying the hand brake when the crash happened.

The call handler was then heard saying: “Are you still there? Hello, operator, I’ve lost the line.”

A vehicle data examiner and safety safety specialist for Volkswagen, the makers of Skoda, told the inquest that in the five seconds before the crash, the vehicle was travelling at 116mph and the accelerator pedal was fully depressed.

He added there was no braking recorded.

Senior coroner, Cripsin Butler said data analysis from the Skoda’s airbag systems failed to provide evidence of the defects Mr Gandhi described during the emergency phone call.

He recorded a narrative verdict.

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