A driver in south-east China got the scare of a lifetime when the cruise control on his car got stuck and the brakes failed in the middle of a highway, so he had to drive more than 300 miles until he ran out of fuel.
The man, named as Mr Luo in local media, had set off in the car borrowed from his cousin, Mr Quan, from Changsha to Yichun, Jiangxi Province, at about 10:20 pm on 2nd December.
Before setting out, Mr Luo filled the entire tank with fuel.
As he was nearing a service area on the road, he tried to stop and take a short rest but soon found that the car’s cruise control function had malfunctioned, and he could not exit or slow down.
“I originally planned to drive into the service area to go to the toilet, but found that stepping on the brakes was useless and the car couldn’t stop.” Mr Luo recalled.
The car kept going at a speed of almost 70 miles (110 kilometres) per hour along the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau Expressway while Mr Luo sat helplessly behind the wheel and began fearing for his life.
Afraid that the night drive may soon end in tragedy, Mr Luo called the police and asked for their help.
Patrol vehicles were immediately dispatched to the highway to guide the driver until he could come to a safe stop.
Police officers tried to appease the panicked Mr Luo, keep him calm, and guide him to release the cruise control through the buttons on the steering wheel and step on the brakes, but the vehicle did not respond.
At the same time, the police also contacted the car manufacturer.
The manufacturer used various measures to guide Luo to slow down, but none of them worked.
After a careful analysis, it was decided that the safest way to deal with it was by letting the vehicle run normally until it runs out of fuel.
And after travelling over 300 miles (500 kilometres), Luo’s vehicle finally came to a stop after completely exhausting the fuel at around 2:50 am on 3rd December.
Thankfully, no traffic accidents were caused during the whole process.
The vehicle involved in the incident was a Great Wall Motor Haval H6 SUV, a small passenger car.
However, Mr Quan told local media that 48 hours after the incident, the Haval company had still not communicated with him, which made him very angry.
