A 32-year-old Indian-origin man from Harrow had a harrowing time at the wheel when he called 999 with his car stuck in cruise control at 110mph before it crashed into a parked lorry, killing him instantly, an inquest heard last week.
In the terrifying eight minutes leading up to the crash, Kaushal Gandhi, of Harrow, Middlesex, told the call handler that he could not stop his white Skoda Octavia accelerating as the cruise control had become stuck.
The incident happened on the M40 as Kaushal Gandhi began accelerating out of control through Buckinghamshire in his car around 3am on February 2.
His desperate 999 call, played to the coroner, ended as he hit the truck parked in a lay-by, reaching a speed of 119mph just before the collision.
Emergency services later found his body in the wreckage, the inquest heard.
“My car is not coming out of the cruise control. It is not letting me stop. It (the speedometer) shows 70mph but I think I am going much faster than this,” he said, according to the recording of his emergency call played at the Coroner’s Court in Buckinghamshire.
The Mumbai-born car enthusiast was the director of Rehncy Shaheen Chartered Accountants in Greenford, west London.
“My speed is increasing. I think what has happened was I tried to change the mode on the car, because I was on the sports mode. I pressed a button to come onto the normal mode and then it is not allowing me to do anything,” he said in the recording.
In desperation he asked if a lane could be closed ahead of him as he approached a junction with the A40 at Denham.
The coroner recorded a “narrative” verdict, ruling out any suggestion that Gandhi had committed suicide.
Martin Clatworthy, a vehicle data examiner for VW, 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.”
