Belgian Man Rescued After Being Trapped in Car Due to Dead Battery (short)

[Video News]

 

 

Belgian Man Rescued After Being Trapped in Car Due to Dead Battery:
A Belgian man, Roger Bert Decker, was trapped in his car for over two hours at a petrol station in Kamphaengphet after the vehicle's battery died. A convenience store worker noticed Decker struggling to open his car door and called for rescue assistance. Despite multiple attempts to unlock the door, the efforts failed, and Decker began to struggle with breathing. Rescuers eventually broke the car window to free him. The Tourist Police arranged transportation for Decker to continue his journey to Chon Buri, as his car required repairs.

[herfiehandbag]

Laugh, I nearly bought a round!

[Elkski]

Stopped at a light behind a Tesla cyber truck today.  What a boring set of tail lights come stock.  And just fugly looking.  I will stick with gas for another decade

[harryviking]

Battery cars are a death trap! People have died in their car after accidents due to not able to open doors! They were burned alive!! Never buy an electric car!  

[GroveHillWanderer]

5 hours ago, harryviking said:

Battery cars are a death trap! People have died in their car after accidents due to not able to open doors! They were burned alive!! Never buy an electric car!  

 

Did you watch the video? As far as I can tell from what I see there, this was a petrol-engined BMW.

[JoseThailand]

On 8/9/2024 at 11:38 AM, Video News said:

Rescuers eventually broke the car window to free him.

 

Geniuses! 

[Chris Daley]

Wind the window down when you have a low battery.

[Foexie]

i wonder who believes this. doors from older beemers don't need  battery power to open at any moment from the inside. they always opens mechanically from the inside. and i know it because have beemers for 35y

[Foexie]

On 8/10/2024 at 1:02 AM, Elkski said:

Stopped at a light behind a Tesla cyber truck today.  What a boring set of tail lights come stock.  And just fugly looking.  I will stick with gas for another decade

good this isn't off topic at all duuuuhhh

[HauptmannUK]

4 hours ago, Foexie said:

i wonder who believes this. doors from older beemers don't need  battery power to open at any moment from the inside. they always opens mechanically from the inside. and i know it because have beemers for 35y

You are wrong. I am co-owner of a very long established car sales and service business in the UK. We will deal with all marques but for the past 25 years we have specialised in BMW and MB cars since they tend to be more profitable.

The car in question is an E46, made from 1996-2006 approx IIRC.  The E46 is fitted with the troublesome GM5 body control module. When locked using the remote fob the locks are moved by the locking motors into a 'deadlock' position, completely disconnecting the locks from the locking pins and door release lever.

To unlock the car from inside the console unlock button must first be pressed to operate the locking motors, to take the locks out of deadlock, and then the door release must be pulled twice to open the door (once to unlock and the once more to open the door).

If the car is locked with the keyfob and the battery goes flat then the door cannot be opened from inside - obviously the power windows will not function and so outside help is needed. Pull the hood/bonnet release and get outside help to connect 12V to the B terminal to power up the system. Or the window has to be broken......

I heard that some years ago a US highschool girl student was trapped in a car and died - leading to a legal case against BMW.

The BCMs on these cars are quite unreliable and we have dealt with cars that have deadlocked on the fob and then refused to unlock even with a good battery. Usually down to a bad relay on the PCB.