An electric car owner has told of his fears that his vehicle would “kill an innocent person” after he lost the ability to apply the brakes on his EV.
Nathan Owen said his £80,000 2019 Jaguar I-Pace “went rogue” on the M62 after overtaking another vehicle on the motorway.
He said his EV malfunctioned and forced him to lose control of the vehicle for around 35 minutes, prompting a huge police operation to take place.
Officers from three police forces were deployed to close a stretch of the motorway and safely bring the vehicle to a stop after the police formed a protective convoy.
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The Jaguar eventually came to a stop after 35 minutes
NORTH WEST MOTORWAY POLICE
Speaking after the incident, the 31-year-old recounted the issue and spoke of his fears when trying to get the car to stop.
He told MailOnline: “In the back of my mind, I was thinking I'm going to end up crashing the car, I'm going to kill myself or I'm going to kill an innocent person on the roads.
“The car was in its own world - it just had no brakes. The worst thing about it is that it's happened before.”
He explained that the car continued to speed up despite pressing on the brakes. He said the car was accelerating to between 90mph and 100mph when he was on the phone with the 999 operator.
Owen claimed that the police spent 35 minutes surrounding the vehicle with eight police cars escorting him down the busy motorway, suggesting he move the vehicle into the hard shoulder to avoid contact with other vehicles.
He continued, saying: “The police officers said they never come across this before and coming down the hard shoulder and the police being behind me, it was like something out a film.
“It was horrible, I was in the fast lane, police car right in front of me, cars alongside me, normal passengers were just staring at me.
“I felt like a criminal like in a big police chase, that's how it felt. It felt like Grand Theft Auto.”
Since the incident, JLR released a new statement, writing: “Following a detailed investigation in partnership with the Merseyside Police and other authorities, we understand an individual has been arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving and causing a public nuisance, relating to the incident on the M62 on Wednesday, March 6th.
“JLR seeks to investigate all reports of issues relating to product safety and will continue to co-operate with Merseyside Police and the Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency where required.”
Posting on Facebook, North West Motorway Police confirmed that it had closed lanes three and four on the M62 between Junction 11 for Birchwood and Junction 12 for Eccles.
It added that this was following the use of tactics to stop the electric vehicle, which had a fault which meant the driver was unable to apply the brakes.
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A 2019 Jaguar I-Pace electric vehicle
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Motorway officers from Merseyside, Cheshire and Greater Manchester Police were able to bring the vehicle to a “safe stop”.