Motorist blames fatal road crash which killed pensioner on Top Gear

TurnerGTX

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An 85-year-old man was killed in a road crash after the driver followed advice from Top Gear, an inquest heard.

Bill Tucker died as Richard Browne, 29, tried to gain control of a trailer he was towing down a steep hill.

When the trailer began to 'snake' from side to side, Mr Browne accelerated the 4x4 to around 60mph after remembering instructions given out on the BBC motoring show.

'I've watched it on Top Gear and they always say, "Put the accelerator down and get out of it, the worst thing you can do is brake - so that's what I did',' he said.

Following the crash on the A30 near Fraddon, Cornwall, a police officer asked Mr Browne: 'And the advice on Top Gear, about accelerating out of the "wobble", is that the only place you've heard that?'

The carpenter from St Kew, Cornwall, replied that it was.

However, the inquest in Truro heard the 'Top Gear advice' was in fact a motoring myth.

Paul Frost, a collision investigator, told the hearing: 'This was a popularly held belief that has since been shown to be wrong.'

The court also heard that Rule 98 of the 2007 Highway Code advises drivers 'swerving or snaking out of control' to do the opposite of ' accelerating out of it'.

Mr Tucker died after being thrown from the Mitsubishi Pajero on October 31 last year. His widow and family have refused to support a prosecution of Mr Browne.

Recording an accidental death verdict, Andrew Cox, deputy coroner for Cornwall, said: 'It would be preferable if people who are going to drive trailers take professional instruction before they begin.'

A spokesman for Top Gear said: 'The presenters are not professional drivers so I wouldn't feel comfortable with them giving advice on the way to drive. Giving advice to drivers is not something that we do.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1095069/Motorist-blames-fatal-road-crash-killed-pensioner-copied-Top-Gear.html
 
how litiginous (lawsuit happy) are the brits?
 
Opposed to the Americans the brits have at least a tiny bit of common sense. This case won't have any success in any European court. I'm pretty sure about that.

No offense to our Americans here, but it's just a fact that the dumbest lawsuits come from there :p
 
Richard Browne, 29, told the Court that he had run over the edge of a cliff and had expected to be motionless in mid-air, with his legs still running. He said that he thought he would be able to run back the the edge of the cliff when he realised he had run too far. Instead, he found himself plummeting to the ground 40 feet below. "I can't understand it", he said: "I saw a cat do it in a cartoon and obviously I thought I would be fine".

Mr. Browne is suing Disney and Warner Bros for damages after he discovered that the cartoon law of physics doesn't apply to anyone who was not drawn with a pencil.
 
Obviously Top Gear will say ridiculous things...anyone who takes them seriously needs to have a mental evaluation. While Top Gear could've saved the day with the right towing advice, it's ultimately Mr. Browne's fault for not knowing how to drive. Simple as that.

Speed does not kill, stupidity does.
 
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He was accelerating down a steep hill while towing a trailer? That just sounds dangerous/idiotic.
 
I guess Mr Browne is referring to the caravanning episode which means he was prepared to take towing advice from a bunch of blokes who made it more than plain that they knew NOTHING about towing caravans.

The bit about 'speeding' out of a wobble was preceded by Jeremy reading the exact opposite advice from a Caravan Club issued booklet...

How dumb do you have to be...
 
I kind of hope that if they mention anything about this in future shows, they don't make a mockery of it. The man may have been 85 years old, but he still had his life snuffed out early.
 
how litiginous (lawsuit happy) are the brits?

Er...

"Mr Tucker died after being thrown from the Mitsubishi Pajero on October 31 last year. His widow and family have refused to support a prosecution of Mr Browne."

The family aren't suing; it's the police that have charged him with something, and the verdict is 'accidental death'.
 
FFS The Daily Fail again :(
 
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delete
 
Oh, for fuck's sake.

X2, my thoughts exactly.


However, the inquest in Truro heard the 'Top Gear advice' was in fact a motoring myth.

Paul Frost, a collision investigator, told the hearing: 'This was a popularly held belief that has since been shown to be wrong.'
What is a myth?
The advice was given by TG and is wrong or the advice was never given by TG.

OK, which Series, Episode & Quote was this from or is this DF BS?
 
lets take caravan advice from those guys who accidentally burned theirs down!
 
Sigh sigh sigh sigh.... They should have known that if you are going forward down a hill and it wobbles, you kick the hand break and drift both the vehicle and caravan till they are both facing backwards and you slowly tap the breaks. DUH!
 
Opposed to the Americans the brits have at least a tiny bit of common sense. This case won't have any success in any European court. I'm pretty sure about that.

No offense to our Americans here, but it's just a fact that the dumbest lawsuits come from there :p

None taken, aside from the fast food, its the bane of this nation, we all know the legal system is messed up and common sense died out long ago.

Er...

"Mr Tucker died after being thrown from the Mitsubishi Pajero on October 31 last year. His widow and family have refused to support a prosecution of Mr Browne."

The family aren't suing; it's the police that have charged him with something, and the verdict is 'accidental death'.

You are assuming i didn't read the article, i did read the above quote and understood what it meant. I was simply asking if incidents similar to these make for lawsuit fodder in the UK.
 
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