Driver rescued by Abu Dhabi Police

Police rescued an Emirati man from his four-wheel drive after he put it on cruise control at 160km an hour – and couldn’t turn it off.

The motorist called 999 and said he had activated the cruise control mechanism but lost control on the Abu Dhabi-Al Ain highway, police said on Saturday.

The Emirati motorist told police that he lost control of the vehicle at the Al Khatem area.

 After receiving the alert the police immediately dispatched three patrol vehicles and traced the speeding car, said Brigadier Engineer Hussein Ahmad Al Harithi, Director of Traffic and Patrols at Abu Dhabi Police.

One patrol vehicle drove ahead of the moving car to clear the road and advised the terrified motorist to follow the pilot vehicle.

Another two patrol vehicles were dispatched to drive alongside the perilously fast-moving car in case it careered off the road and crashed.

But the motorist could not operate the cruise control or apply the brakes and the car continued at top speeds, posing a real risk of causing several fatal crashes.

At one point, Abu Dhabi police were planning to lead the car to an uninhabited area to somehow reduce the speed and stop the vehicle.

Meanwhile, the police officials from the central operations department started giving safety instructions to the motorist over the phone.

After a short time, the car eventually slowed down and came to a complete stop at Ramah, near the Abu Dhabi — Al Ain highway without posing any danger on the part of the driver or any other road users.

Al Harithi has called on all motorists to check the efficiency of the cruise control systems in their cars.

Brigadier Engineer Hussein Ahmad Al Harithi, Director of Traffic and Patrols at Abu Dhabi Police advised motorists to immediately report such problems to their car dealers and to their service centers and have they fixed immediately.