An unusual and sadly, tragic accident involving a pensioner and his Land Rover Freelander, which started the engine after he slammed the boot shut:
tinyurl.com/qz5q2o9
Apparently believed that he might have thought the vehicle was left in parking mode.
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How on earth can slamming the boot lid start the engine? I find it almost impossible to believe. Something wrong somewhere with the car, the owner's behaviour or the account given.
If for example the gear selector was left between two positions, a jolt might cause it to fall into the nearest slot, reverse in this case. I can believe that.
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The editorial accuracy of the paper concerned can be gauged from the Land Rover 'pictured above' in the article.
I'm no expert on 4*4 so cannot determine the model but it's certainly a BMW!!
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Possibly equipped with stop/start. Car detects all doors shut and thinks its time to go. Pure speculation from me, I have no idea if this would actually happen.
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The ones I've tried (and, I think, a first-hand report from our own RTJ) suggest there is a mechanism to override the Stop when a door opens, presumably to prevent exactly this.
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>> The ones I've tried (and, I think, a first-hand report from our own RTJ) suggest
>> there is a mechanism to override the Stop when a door opens, presumably to prevent
>> exactly this.
I can almost guarantee the car did not "start" when he slammed the door. And yes how can you call a BMW a Freelander.
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Missed edit. The LEC (no start-stop) won't start without the selector in P and a foot on the brake. I know this because the other weekend I started it, put it in D, changed my mind about pulling away when my way was blocked by another car reversing out of a space (qv), then was briefly mystified at the engine's refusal to restart.
I'd also be surprised if the Freelander (the picture is an X3, isn't it?) would stay in Stop mode without a foot on the brake, or even enter Stop with the selector in R. Here's my guess:
Driver comes to a halt, reverses into parking spot, engages brake hold / hill hold mode. Thinks he's stopped engine but has forgotten. Wife is paying no real attention at this point - why would she? - but is snapped into it by shouts of husband as the car starts to move. Either closing tailgate has disengaged the hold, or the hill-hold time has expired, leaving nothing to prevent the car - which was in gear and running the whole time - from moving. Wife - understandably - constructs a version of events, filling in the gap when she wasn't watching with an assumption that exonerates her husband. But it was probably his fault.
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Presumably they enlisted the services of a competent specialist to provide a report on whether the vehicle did start itself - a police officer is mentioned in the report, but might not know all the possibilities.
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>> Presumably they enlisted the services of a competent specialist to provide a report on whether
>> the vehicle did start itself - a police officer is mentioned in the report, but
>> might not know all the possibilities.
I have no doubt that what was said in court, and what was printed in that article are without doubt poles part
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A much more coherent version here: www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/12965860.Ex_Argus_worker_killed_by_own_car__inquest_hears/
I'd have thought it likely that he'd left it idling in reverse, and slamming the boot shut was enough to let it the engine overcome the brakes.
Last edited by: Tigger on Fri 22 May 15 at 18:21
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>> The ones I've tried (and, I think, a first-hand report from our own RTJ)
Are you suggesting I get out and try to run over myself with the A3? :-)
I think I am right in saying if you get out and it's stopped (As in Stop-Start) it will need a full restart. I've got out before now and it's done that but the DSG gearbox was in park.
So I consciously turn off stop-start... but put it in PARK!
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>> A much more coherent version here: www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/12965860.Ex_Argus_worker_killed_by_own_car__inquest_hears/
A "self proclaimed" 'photo setter', whatever that means?
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>> I'd have thought it likely that he'd left it idling in reverse, and slamming the
>> boot shut was enough to let it the engine overcome the brakes.
That's pretty much what's said in The Argus. Makes much more sense than the omnishambles of a report in the Wail.
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I've seen a few reports of BMWs with keyless ignition and stop/start sitting in car parks with the engine stopping and starting itself for hours.
I guess it's not supposed to happen (I think the seatbelt is supposed to be fastened before it'll start) but the engine stops as the car comes to a halt, driver gets out and then sometime later the car detects the battery is getting low and restarts the engine.
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Is all this gadgetry really an improvement on having cars with an ignition key that works in the time-honoured way?
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You can have stop start with an ignition key.
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I think what Cliff means is do we need any complications beyond a key. Need, no, want = problems for some, maybe more than will admit it.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sat 23 May 15 at 09:25
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You mean keyless entry and or go? Complicated? From what I've seen they're simpler than a key to use.
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>>A "self proclaimed" 'photo setter', whatever that means?<<
He, like many of his generation in the printing trade, was evidently a pioneering user of photo-electronic typesetting systems, which 40 years ago or more, didn't have any accepted terminology to describe the people using them.
Next question...
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>>
>> Next question...
>>
In this context, what does "self proclaimed", mean?
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There was no pre-existing descriptive noun for what he did in that era. Like many of us, he made up what he decided to call himself. A photosetter (man) could operate a photosetter (machine). Why shouldn't it have been 'self proclaimed'? In just a few years it became completely irrelevant anyway.
Of all the jobs I've done in newspapers over the past nigh-on 50 years, right through production and editorial, from bottom to (almost) top, the only descriptive title that still gives me any satisfaction at all is 'journeyman compositor' - which means virtually nothing to anybody.
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>> the only descriptive title that still gives me any satisfaction at all is 'journeyman compositor' - which means virtually nothing to anybody.
Means something to me... all those boxes of type, rawhide-faced mallets and things. Those seedy workshops down between Fleet Street and the river... even tried it myself once, although a pro could do it about fifty times as fast.
Linotype destroyed a skilled profession.
:o}
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Nice one, AC. I graduated to the linotype - different skills and more dangerous but the money was a lot better! A day or two ago I was at the printing museum near here where I do volunteer guiding and other stuff and, as usual, showed the visitors my left forearm covered in burn scars from flying hot metal. Happy days...
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>>Linotype destroyed a skilled profession. >>
Restrictive practices destroyed a skilled profession.
Incidentally, when the Telegraph NGA staff went on strike in the 1970s(?), the owners had the paper set in Germany, where the Linotype operators were mainly Turkish.
They used to set the type several times faster than their Fleet Street equivalents......
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>> You mean keyless entry and or go? Complicated? From what I've seen they're simpler than
>> a key to use.
>>
Keyless entry is a totally unnecessary complication. Our second-hand S-Max has it, but it has joined the list of things I will avoid where at all possible on future cars. Other things on that list include cans of gunk masquerading as a spare wheel.
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I like keyless. Just leave the car key in my jacket of jeans pocket and forget about it
Could I live without it? Of course
Would it make me chose a particular car because it was offered - probably not, but I might pick it from the options list
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>> Other things on that list include cans of gunk masquerading as a spare wheel.
With you there Bb. I don't even like remote door locks. How have Oriental gizmo manufacturers become so influential? These 'toys' make cars less reliable and sometimes dangerous even. Beats me.
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. How have Oriental gizmo
>> manufacturers become so influential? These 'toys' make cars less reliable and sometimes dangerous even. Beats
>> me.
>>
My experience is entirely different.
Cars have now become almost 100% reliable since I passed my test in 1967..
Nothing goes wrong - except for the occasional squeaking from an electric mirror when folding.
Maybe it's my choice of car maker?
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>> Maybe it's my choice of car maker?
>>
>>
Which is?
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>> Japanese?
IIRC Madf runs a Toyota.
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Land Rover Freelander 2 - A sad and tragic accident - Armel Coussine
