Accidental automatics

[Richard.Mansell@psemail.ps.net]

     The thread recently about accidentally putting the auto box in reverse 
     at inopportune moments reminded me of an article I cut out ages ago 
     about fatal accidents involving XJ-S's.
     
     Since my family will be expanding to three shortly, the two legged 
     variety, not the 4 tyred type :-( , my wife had ordered me to tidy up 
     my magazines this weekend. Whilst leafing through them the article 
     surfaced again. 
     
     It is from January 1981, motor magazine (UK)
     
     Jaguar's selector blamed for another accident
     
     It was in August 1979 that we reported a fatal accident involving a 
     Jaguar XJ-S. The car had veered out of control across the road and hit 
     a car coming the other way, in which three people lost their lives. 
     (Picture of smashed car was also included)
     
     From the evidence presented at the inquest it seemed abundantly clear 
     that what has happened was that the Jaguar driver had used the 
     automatic selection lever to go down to second gear and then in moving 
     it forward to Drive position had gone too far and put the car into 
     reverse.
     
     We can well sympathise with such a mistake, which is all too easy to 
     make with the vague, wrongly gated selector control which Jaguar 
     persist in fitting. We have criticised it over and over again  in our 
     Autotests. What is not widely appreciated is that if an automatic 
     transmission selector is moved to reverse position, reverse on most 
     cars will usually engage, whatever the speed, instantly locking the 
     rear wheels and sending the car out of control.
     
     There has now been another fatal accident. At an inquest in Oswestry, 
     just before Christmas, the court heard how a woman passenger was 
     killed when a Jaguar XJ-S went out of control, crossing the road and 
     hit the car in which she was travelling. Accident investigator PC 
     Keith Little said he believed the accident was caused by the Jaguar's 
     automatic gear selector moving from forward position to Reverse or 
     Park and added that the motoring press had been critical of the 
     automatic shift control in the Jaguar.
     
     For the manufacturer, the moral of these tragedies is clear:
     
     There should be no obstruction to free movement between Drive and 
     second gear positions, otherwise the detents safeguarding other 
     positions become of no effect. If is an unwanted block between D and 2 
     has to be overcome, there is nothing to prevent inadvertent movement 
     beyond these positions. In the Jaguar case the problem is particularly 
     bad, since a block between D and 2 has to be cleared by moving the 
     lever sideways both when changing down and changing up.
     
     Jaguar will continue to fit the deplorable T-handle control whose 
     woolly action is so unworthy of the cars. We can not understand why 
     they refuse to adopt the far superior transmission selector system 
     used in the Rover. The 1979 accident suggested modifications were 
     required; the recent all-to-similar case confirms it.
     
     
     Me again, hope you found the above article interesting. If not, sorry 
     to waste the bandwidth.
     
     Richard
     richard.mansell@ps.net '89 XJ-S

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