Malfunctioning Car Runs Over Thai 7 Students, Killing One

[normac44]

Every day I drive Mercedes, Porsches ,Audis and Volvos in my job and I can tell you from experience that an out of control car moving in "D" position can pick up speed very quickly.

Seems like a hot wire has been put in to by-pass the inhibitor switch. I find it a bit hard to believe however that this guy could push a Mercedes. I can hardly push my motor-bike.

[Richb2004v2]

I mentioned this story to my wife yesterday. She said that the engine and gear box was not from the original car and had been installed wrong, so when it looked to be in 'park' it was actually in 'drive'. That wasn't the precise story but something close. It seems there could be a legitimate mechanical fault and maybe not the fault of the driver after all.

[Randee]

you know you hear every-so-often about somebody going crazy with a gun and committing mass murders in schools and shopping malls etc due to stress and cracking up under pressure from tormentors etc.

Maybe it happened to this guy but he used a car instead of guns.

i dont believe he simply "lost control" of a faulty car and accidently drove into them

[jimbeam1]

Started the engine to align the wheels (OK, power steering) but lost control? <deleted>?

I noticed my wife watching this on the Thai news and I asked her to tell me what had happened. Her Engrish is not fantastic, but from what I gather, the car was started when it was not in "Park", which suggests to me that some mechanic hotwired the inhibitor switch, which is a switch on the side of the gearbox that stops the car starting in any gear other than Park and Neutral. These switches wear ( it was an older Mercedes, too ) and the car refuses to start at all, so people sometimes hotwire them. This unfortunately means an automatic car can now be started in gear......more easily than in a manual car, because you're not expecting it.

I had to do this myself once in a Peugeot and just put a wire across a relay in the engine bay ( between the inhibitor switch and ignition), but I was _VERY_ careful to never start it in anything but Park. I still forgot once and it surged forward in gear immediately upon starting.

He may well have been pushing the car, thinking it was in Neutral......only it was in "Drive". An automatic will roll as if it is in Neutral if it is in Drive. Then he may have thought he'd start it................

There isn't any information that it was an automatic transmission. Anyways you can't push an automatic in Neutral.

Let's wait for the outcome; it could also have been a ghost, or the driver forgot to make a Tamboon for his Benz. RIP young girl, tears in heaven....:jap:

I can assure you that you can push an automatic in neutral,

thats why it's called neutral, it has no drive gear connected therefore it is free to role.

Also nearly all mercs are automatic.

I agree with Latindancer that the gearbox inhibitor switch could well have been bypassed

allowing the car to start in gear.

I agree with you 100%

jb1

[jimbeam1]

Sorry double post

Edited July 10, 2011 by jimbeam1