Dear Mr Penning,

I am writing to you in your capacity as Road Safety Minister.

I am a GP based in Wiltshire and also Co-Chair and Trustee of a local charity, SWIFTMedics.

SWIFT Medics is a registered charity(1133797), whose volunteer doctors provide immediate medical care for emergencies across Wiltshire and the surrounding areas (we also cover Bath), involving both adults and children. Doctors respond to calls 24/7 to attend the scene of 'car accidents' or sudden severe serious medical conditions such as heart attacks, severe asthma or meningitis.

Please find part of a press release i am putting together.

Dr Adam Brownhill Co-Chair and Trustee of SWIFTMedics,a registered charity, nearly died on the M4 yesterday due to a well known fault with his Skoda Octavia diesel engine.

"We respond in out own cars which are very much like unmarked police cars, as a consequence we are fully police driver trained by Wiltshire Police Driver Training Unit" said Dr Brownhill. He continued " it was terrifying all of a sudden at 70mph my engine warning lights came on and i lost power steering and brakes in the outside lane of the M4, if it was not for my advanced police driver training and use of my rear blue lights to enable to warn other road users i am almost certain there would have been an accident as it was i was nearly hit as i coasted off the motorway."

"What is most upsetting is that Skoda are aware of this fault yet have done nothing to alert people, you only have to look at the forums to see how often this is happening."

ENDS

The fault is the fuel injectors which is an endemic problem with certain VAG engines.

All the injectors from the the 2.0 TDI PD engines that use piezoelectric Siemens injectors and Siemens ECU's are affected by this problem.

As far as i know Skoda used the piezoelectric system only on Octavia VRS 2.0 TDI (BMN) from the year 2006 to the introduction of the common rail 2.0 TDI engine (CEGA) in 2009

The most problems were on the Passat BKD 2.0 TDI 140HP engines. There are a lot of cases where the owners changed all of them before the cars reached 100.000 miles. If you Google the forums this has been going on for a long time.

The TOTAL LOSS OF THE ENGINE, POWER STEERING AND SERVO ASSISTED BRAKES in a 1500kg car at 70mph in lane three of the M4 presented a serious threat to my life and other road users as previously mentioned it was only due to my advanced police training and use of rear blue lights that prevented a muti vehicle accident on the M4.

I have been in contact with John Fitch at VOSA and submitted the necessary forms.

I am very concerned that this known safety issue represents a significant risk to road users. VOSA already have on record one accident due to this problem however reading the forums it is clear that many people do not know to contact VOSA . VAG as yet have decided NOT to recall cars affected.

I have been told Skoda are replacing the faulty parts on my car as a "gesture of goodwill" one would think that the sales of goods act applies here, my car has been serviced above and beyond that recommended by Skoda in-fact its last service was 300miles before this event.

One wonders how long till there is a serious accident due to this problem with certain VAG cars.

I am more than happy to contact my local elected representatives, however our charity works very closely with other Road Safety and accident prevention organisations (safe drive stay alive, bike safe), Police and Fire and Rescue Services, in speaking to them they suggested i contact your good self.

Kind regards,

Dr Adam Brownhill