Is Frank Lecerf's 125 mph, no brakes, police chase in a Renault Laguna his version of "C'etait un Rendezvous?" No, not at all.
Lecerf's wild ride all started with a rather mundane weekly supermarket run in northern France. The 36-year-old was traveling on the freeway when his Laguna inexplicably jammed the throttle at 60 mph. What's more, each time Lecerf tapped the brakes to reel the car in, the car would accelerate instead. Eventually, the vehicle climbed to 125 mph and the brakes had completely failed.
"My life flashed before me," Frank Lecerf told Le Courrier Picard. "I just wanted it to stop."
Frank Lecerf managed to call emergency services while navigating his vehicle past fellow commuters at more than double the highway speed limit. The French police immediately dispatched a squad of police vehicles, escorting Lecerf across the French motorway until his car eventually ran out of gas.
Running out of road, Lecerf was headed for the Belgian border as the police notified three toll stations to lift their barriers as he barreled through at breakneck speeds. After an hour of flat out, full throttle at 125 mph without brakes, Lecerf's car finally slowed and sputtered. Acting quickly, he swerved into a ditch and stopped his vehicle. Lecerf ended up in Alveringem, Belgium, located 125 miles away from his home in Pont-de-Metz.
According to the Guardian, no one was hurt during the high speed chase though Frank Lecerf suffered two minor epileptic seizures. Lecerf's Renault Laguna was specially modified to allow vehicle operation for disabled drivers.
Now, Lecerf has filed an official legal complaint against Renault. His lawyer claims that his vehicle is responsible for the "endangerment of a person's life."
Although a Renault technician extended assistance to the French police during Lecerf's chase, neither the police nor the Renault specialist could propose a safe plan to stop the vehicle.
With the Toyota unintended acceleration fiasco still fresh in the minds of many concerned drivers, investigators are racing to understanding the cause of the latest high speed incident. Renault awaits the results of the findings.
