Sharjah: As many as 10 incidents of cruise control failure have been reported to the Sharjah Police over the past few days, according to Colonel Jassim bin Hada, Director General of the police operation room.
Cruise control, also known as speed control or autocruise, is a system that automatically controls the speed of a vehicle to maintain it at a steady level as set by the driver. The problem arises when the set system fails and the driver is unable to control the speed of the car.
According to the police, the recent incidents they dealt with involved a range of speeds stuck between 130 km/h and 60 km/h.
Col Bin Hada said one motorist driving from Dubai to Sharjah along Emirates Road experienced a cruise control failure with his car stuck at 130km/h.
Police patrols immediately rushed to deal with the life-threatening situation and with utmost professionalism, managed to save the young driver, by keeping in direct contact with him and taking him through a step-by-step process on how to come to a halt.
Sharjah Police first made sure that the driver’s seatbelt was fastened, the hazard lights switched on. He was also told to remain calm as he was guided to safety.
Police coordinated with a number of patrols to secure a safe path for the motorist, with one police vehicle even matching his speed of 130 km/h.
Once the driver and the police vehicle were close to one another, the motorist was instructed to slightly bump into the police car in order to disable the cruise.
Sharjah Police called upon all drivers to be cautious and not completely rely on cruise control. They also urged motorists keep within speed limits and adhere to traffic rules and regulations. Drivers were also urged to carry out regular maintenance of their vehicles to avoid dangerous situations.
What to do in case of cruise control failure:
- Keep calm and make sure your seat belt is on
- Put on the hazard lights
- Call 999
- Put the gear on Neutral (N), then turn off the engine
- If that fails, step on the brakes firmly and steadily until the car eventually stops
- If the previous method also fails, slowly pull up the handbrake while firmly holding the steering wheel
- If that fails too, change the gear setting from Neutral (N) to Drive (D) repeatedly
