news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8203999.stm
How easy is it to accidentally knock off a hanbrake. I've no idea how the handbrake in a Picasso works, but are they that easy to "knock off" ?
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Electronic, therefore handbrake faulty (shouldn't release without ignition on) or handbrake was never applied...
Easy to forget when its electronic I wonder?
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I wonder if the ignition was on to allow her to run something off the fag lighter socket?
Unusual I would have thought for keys to just be left in the ignition for no purpose.
Assuming they were - but how else could she steer it?
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The fact she was listening to music made me wonder if the audio had a USB or 3.5mm connection for a music player. Or as oilrag says she was charging a phone. Because why sit in a car listening to music.
We'll never know the real details but she could easily have had the ignition key to use the music player. Or was even listening to the car stereo... and if the handbrake was not applied properly it could easily disengage.
... lucky nobody was in the tents.
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It makes me cringe just looking at the video. Ask yourself, could you could you park a car seemingly with the front wheels pointed straight down a field to a cliff with a sheer drop onto rocks? I would have put it on full lock, engaged the steering lock and put it in gear.
Even then, kids left in cars....
Iv`e mentioned before a doctor, I met through work, an older man by then, who left his two kids, many years previously, in a Merc I seem to remember. He popped into a paper shop, came out and the car was in flames. the kids had been playing with the Fag lighter on something. Both died and the poor chap was understandably absolutely ruined and haunted by it.
Edited by oilrag on 18/08/2009 at 19:04
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The report I heard about this incident on the TV news, complete with an interview with the girl involved, said that she managed to steer the car around a tent which had people in it at the time.
Therefore, she must have had the keys in the ignition!
Edit. I've just watched the video in the above link. It would appear the young girl has now changed her story!
Edited by Galaxy on 18/08/2009 at 19:13
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A friend of mine, when I was living and working in New Zealand, was out for a parachute jump with his mates one weekend, and left his young son on the ground with the car keys
He was hanging by the parachute way up in the sky and clearly watched as his son accidentally set fire to his car
By the time he was on the ground the car was a shell
Fortunately his son was ok apart from the telling off
Oh how we laughed about it in work on the Monday
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Galaxy,
if she had steered the car then not only was she in possession of the keys but the steering lock was off and probably engine running too. I bet she changes her story a few times. Perhaps it did have an electronic handbrake and it perhaps didn't fail.
It's just lucky nobody was hurt at all.
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maybe she will write a story in the daily blob about it loike and makes loads a dosh see?
noone with have a molusc upstairs would leave a child in a car on a hill towards a cliff
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I was actually first with this one, in oilrag's central locking thread. She didn't look much of a heroine to me. Unless, that is, she has agreed to take the blame for the old folks, which isn't impossible.
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Watch Granny whilst the girl tells the story. Sumfinks not right.
M.
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Watch Granny-- Sumfinks not right.
looks like she is having a stroke at the start.
it looks a bit of an extreme way of getting rid of a car you don't want.
mabey an idea for j1mbo -- nobody want's to buy my car thread.
just kidding.
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it looks a bit of an extreme way of getting rid of a car you don't want.
Especially as an insurance payout is extremely uncertain. Left the keys in, with an 11yr old in the driving seat.
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>> Watch Granny-- Sumfinks not right.
Granny seems to have a Scouse accent?
Is that the answer to everything?
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Nothing like a loving cuddle for a grandchild who has had a brush with death - infact nothing!
Maybe it was because she was bursting for a pee :-)
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Ice is cold, not slippery.
If you want slippery try wet grass.
Scam me up baby, scam me up!!
Em Dee.
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I know this camp site very well. My Corsa spent a week on that very place last month. The funny thing is we have often joked when we had gone camping don't let the hand brake off.
Its a lovely part of the world.
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Seems interesting from a non verbal behaviour perspective.
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"If you want slippery try wet grass."
A mate of mine was up at Flamborough Head when we were both aged 17yrs. They found him dead on the rocks just past the lighthouse on the Bridlington side.
Opinion was that he had not realized how the slope towards the cliff edge (treacherous sculpting not visible on approach) suddenly became steeper. That his feet had gone from under him on the wet grass and he had tobogganed on his back, straight over the edge.
Edited by oilrag on 18/08/2009 at 22:47
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It's surprisingly difficult to get out of a moving car, because you normally need the ground to be still to get leverage to climb out of the seat. You need great nerve and presence of mind to stand on the cill first before jumping. If you just put your feet down on the ground in panic there is considerable risk of being hauled out feet first and catching your sleeve on the door latch .
Try it some time :)
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Are you trying to tell us something Cliff? ;-)
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Not personally, but I've seen someone dragged ignominiously along the gutter thinking it would be easy just to hop out while his friend slowed up in heavy traffic.
And a farmer warned me once that if your tractor runs away down hill and you decide to jump off, watch out for the rear wheel.
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Isn't it illegal to leave keys in a car then leave the vehicle unattended by the driver? I seem to recall something from a thread not too long ago.
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It's illegal to leave an unattended car with the engine running, but I've not heard of legal issues with the engine off.
Only insurance is compromised by leaving the keys in the car...
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Thanks OB.
Anyone tried to move the wheel in a modern PAS-equipped car without the engine running? Takes a lot of effort.
More, I would venture to suggest, than an 11 year old girl could manage.
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They've got be trying to have 'an earn' somehow surely.
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Reminds me of one time when I was a child. My father had a Jag Mk7 I assume and My sister, my cousin and I were playing in it one Sunday afternoon. The road outside our house has a slight slope and the Jag was parked in gear. As far as I know handbrakes on Jags did not raeely work in those days.) I knokedt it out of gear. The car rolled down the road and I managed to steer it towards a laneway on the other side. The local bank manager was walking along there and he managed to bring it to a stop by pushing on the front.
I was in serious trouble espcialy as it was my second ofense in that car. The first time I was left sitting in it when we were visiting a house in the country. The car was parke facing the well, in gear and no handbrake. I wondered what would happen if I pressed the starter without the key in the ignition. The Jag lended in thw well.
All this was in the 1950's in rural Ireland.
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She mentions a PCP button - what's that?
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I find Grandma far more interesting than the child. That said, Where`s Grandad?
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She says 'ECP', and according to a similar thread on a Picasso forum she means 'ESP'.
Search for 'Citroen ecp button'.
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Where`s Grandad?
Filling out the claim form.
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Where`s Grandad?
He was quoted at length in the original Telegraph news item.
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by jove i've got it!
nanny not being too savvy with modern computers and wanting to sell her car asks her grand daughter to 'stick it in Ebay', ten minutes the grand daughter who hasn't heard her correctly comes back and says 'granny i've put your car in thee-bay'
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alfatrike, Frank Muir would have been proud of you.
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The words "Hero" & "Heroine" are far too loosely used these days.
It devalues true heroism.
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As Monty Python might have said - She's not a heroine she's just a naughty girl.
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I have two Renaults - Espace with electric handbrake. Impossible to release unless you reach with right hand under the dash, press central section in and pull lever upwards. Starting engine is push button - no clutch or brake pedal, but handbrake only releases when in gear and reved ready to move off. Megan is aircraft style handbrake lever - and I would reckon impossible to release accidentally. Starting enginne is by pressing brake pedal as you hit the start button. IMHO - Modern cars - pretty difficult to release handbrake unless child really knew what she was doing or handbrake left off (which I and SWMBO have done in the Megan forgetting it wasn't automatic like the Espace.
I agree - naughty not heroine is more likely and possibly negligent/careless grandparents
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Reminiscent of that fellow who claimed he couldn't stop his BMW on the motorway.
Journalists these days will swallow any old carp from 'the population'. After all it's more convincing as a rule than the PR excrement they base much of their stuff on, tomatoes kill you or save your life, that sort of thing.
You read it, you wonder if it's true without giving much of a damn, and tomorrow you read something else even more improbable.
I am on the verge of giving up newspapers. Heaven knows how I'll survive without them. But my heart isn't in it any more. They're full of lies, distortions and utter garbage.
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Yup, me too.
And I gave my whole working life to the trade.
Journalists don't know how to ask questions any more and most of the time they are less knowledgeable (to put it politely) than whoever is spinning them a line.
Edited by mike hannon on 20/08/2009 at 07:14
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PU - where did the "heroine" come from? It's not in the text in the linked BBC story, and I don't hear it in the video report.
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Another interesting inconsistency is the location.
The Telegraph says it was near Rhyl. The BBC say Benllech, Anglesey.
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True. And yet aren't all modern journalist allegedly better trained - with "meedja" studies degrees and everything?
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allegedly better trained - with "meedja" studies degrees and everything?
They are not much help to a person who can't read, write or think straight.
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As Monty Python might have said - She's not a heroine she's just a naughty girl.
>>>>>>>>She's not a heroine she's just very a naughty girl
Edited by bell boy on 20/08/2009 at 14:20
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