Yes, .08% is a lowish threshold for some people but I believe in the most famous GM case it was a lot higher. And she was 16. And not wearing a seat belt. And speeding at around three times the limit. And out at 3 am.
emjayay
emjayay
Yes, they do like when some ignition bit or fuel pump or something fails.
Your steering did not "lock up". The brakes did not eventually lock up. They just worked when you applied enough pressure. If you actually got them to lock up by standing on the pedal, they were still working normally. As a dozen people here replied already, brakes have a vacuum reservoir good for one or two stops and…
Maybe just for education purposes you two should find a big empty parking lot and try out turning the engine off.
You are right. Nothing actually locked. And personally I always wear seatbelts. Particularly if I am drunk and planning to go triple the speed limit.
OK, but for the three millionth time, no one's steering locked. And personally I would not make assumptions if my mother, sister, grandmother or father crashed and died. Or my drunken daughter either.
For the two millionth time, no, the cars were not impossible to steer. And such. Such being brakes, which still work with power.
When you are going around a curve at three times the speed limit and very drunk with your seatbelts off, you don't really have time to shift into neutral and restart the car. You are into the tree at that point, apparently. Of course, you might have been into the tree anyway.
As a hundred people here pointed out, no it can't lock. And that never happened.
No. You have to turn it one more click and the last one is a lot harder.
No. It was not actually locked, ever. Not mechanically possible.
Also for the millionth time, not similar to power steering in that you still have reserve vacuum for one or two stops with the engine off. Find an empty parking lot and try it yourself.
I think you have to have it in park to lock, and I don't think any of these drivers did anything except maybe panic.
For the millionth time, a car with FWD or whatever is not un-steerable with the engine off. The resistance is not insurmountable. Teen aged girls are not usually weak, although being drunk may not be helpful.
No. Anyone who claimed that is saying "locked up" to describe "harder to turn."
Not relevant to this discussion, but you know, it keeps a lot of cars from being stolen or something.
OK, GM was wrong. But for example one crash involved a young woman flying off the road at about three times the legal speed whose blood alcohol was about as much over the drunk definition. No evidence the key even turned before the car was flying through the air, although her drunken three times the speed limit on a…
No, the steering wheels did not lock. That would take another and more deliberate twist of the key.
I'm guessing the stuck throttle guy was somewhere not in traffic and not a danger to others.
Headlights go on with the ignition switch completely off.