Motorist decapitated after ‘car’s cruise control jams’ before stuffing into lorry
Crash victim Kaushal Gandhi
Kaushal Gandhi called the emergency services as his car thundered along the M40 – but call-handlers could do nothing to help the 32-year-old before the horrific crash.
The terror rail was recorded by police and replayed to a coroner who heard how the company director struggled to control his white Skoda Octavia as it topped speeds of 116mph before the final devastating influence.
During the harrowing eight-minute emergency call, desperate Mr Gandhi told officers the car`s cruise control was jammed and he could not stop.
The coroner heard that the car ultimately careered off the motorway and into a lay-by where it slammed into a parked lorry.
Related articles
The open up of motorway where Kaushal Gandhi lost contol of his car
Emergency services who arrived at the scene soon after the crash found Mr Gandhi’s headless assets in the wreckage with the car embedded under the lorry up to its back wheels.
The inquest in Beaconsfield, Bucks, heard how the motorist despairingly told police staff his car was driving itself as it reached 119mph two seconds before the collision with the eighteen tonne truck.
Senior coroner Crispin Butler said data analysis from the mangled car’s airbag systems failed to provide evidence of the defects described by Mr Gandhi during his frantic last call.
The inquest heard Mr Gandhi tell a masculine call handler: “My speed is enlargening. I pressed a button to come onto the normal mode and then it is not permitting me to do anything.”
Police crash investigators found no evidence of defects on the car
n the eight-and-a-half minute period prior to the collision Mr Gandhi had been engaged in a phone conversation with Thames Valley Police
Coroner Crispin Butler
The call taker was then heard asking if he had attempted pulling on the handbrake.
“I haven’t attempted it because at this speed I am not sure what will happen. I am in the middle lane right now, there is no traffic. Do you want me to attempt the palm brake?”
The call handler, who was then seeking advice from a colleague, got no response to a question before influence.
The coroner heard how retired firefighter Robert Hague, who was driving an Ocado HGV on the opposite carriageway, told police the white Skoda crashed into the truck six hundred yards after the M40 merged into the A40 Western Avenue shortly after 3am.
Martin Clatworthy, a vehicle data examiner and safety specialist for Volkswagen, the makers of the Skoda, said: “There is no indication that there was any error or problem with any of the electronic systems of the car in the five seconds leading up to the collision.”
A map showcasing the scene of Kaushal Gandhi’s horrific car crash