Do I have any rights on this?

custardy

Paulo_Gianinni wrote: »

Yeah the clutch also disengages the brake. At the time didn't think of this at the time though. Was just pumping the brake pedal.

AndyMc..... wrote: »

Maybe it was an automatic.

It would seem not.
Even with CC not disengaging. A driver in roadworks @40mph should be leaving enough of a gap to deal with unexpected road conditions/hazards.
So apparently didnt brake sufficiently,didnt dip the cluch and their only option was to crash/'steer' into something.

motorguy

As its a manual car, simply depressing the clutch and knocking the car out of gear would have overridden the CC sticking on.

I honestly cant see how it could have stuck on - the car i had problems with was a 1996 C36 AMG. Even then the car was monitoring brakes / ABS / CC and any sign of a fault with the ABS or cruise control it simply disabled both and the dash would light up like a christmas tree.

Cant help but think driver error, however either way i dont think the O/P has any comeback with the garage, unless of course they're willing to pay £££ to have the car examined.

Arklight

No idea if cruise control can stay stuck on or not. But people can panic easily when their car doesn't do what they expect. The audio recording of the family that died when their Toyota wouldn't stop accelerating is chilling.

They're screaming that the car is exceeding 70 - 80 then 100mph. The dispatcher asks if they can't just turn the engine off or put it in neutral, advice which would have saved their lives, but they are panicking too much to listen.

GDB2222

Arklight wrote: »

No idea if cruise control can stay stuck on or not. But people can panic easily when their car doesn't do what they expect. The audio recording of the family that died when their Toyota wouldn't stop accelerating is chilling.

They're screaming that the car is exceeding 70 - 80 then 100mph. The dispatcher asks if they can't just turn the engine off or put it in neutral, advice which would have saved their lives, but they are panicking too much to listen.

Exactly so.

As to the Op's legal rights, have a look here:
https://www.raccars.co.uk/about/safety/rights

The law is very much on his side, but the problem is the practical one of proving that the vehicle was faulty, which would require an expensive independent report. That may well be inconclusive given that the vehicle is wrecked. If it were me, and my life had been endangered, I'd pay for the report anyway, but the OP may prefer not to bother.

Unlike other posters, I'm assuming that the OP is not lying, particularly as I can't see any point at all in his doing so on this forum.

AdrianC

GDB2222 wrote: »

Unlike other posters, I'm assuming that the OP is not lying, particularly as I can't see any point at all in his doing so on this forum.

If you include me in that, then I am not assuming he's lying. Just mistaken.


In the brief moment of panic when he realised that he was approaching the traffic ahead rapidly and over-reacted, he probably did assume the problem was the cruise control's failure rather than inappropriate use of cruise and inadequate observation.