Motorist has lucky escape on French motorway

A very strange incident happened in France this past week when Frank Lecerf, driving on a A16 motorway in the northern part of the country, found himself with a jammed speed accelerator. The mechanical problem meant that he was unable to stop, and kept his Renault Laguna going at 125mph down the road before crashing into Belgium, inside of a ditch.

The 36 year old driver managed to call the emergency services on his mobile while this was all happening, and alerted the authorities who sent an escort to clear the road on over 100 miles while this car went flying down the motorway. The ordeal ended near the town of La Panne, which ironically enough means break down in French.

Speaking to the press, he said that it was a real miracle that he had survived, and that he had no intention of going back into that car. The driver claimed that the car was modified to help him deal with epilepsy, which means that the brake and throttle are controlled by buttons on the steering wheel.

However, Renault engineers checked the car for electronic faults and found none, casting doubts on the story. They suggest it could have been a case of panic which would follow a bad manipulation of the onboard controls.

This is not the first time Mr Lecerf has this kind of trouble either. Twice before he had something similar occur and no fault was found. According to him, he set the speed at 60mph, then when he tried to break later on the car instead accelerated to 125mph. When he tried to cut the car engine it did not work, and it took an hour for the car to come to a stop, going past three toll booths.