Man ‘Trapped’ In Car For 14 Hours Right Next To A Manual Door Release

In a classic case of RTFM, a 75-year-old man spent 14 hours trapped inside his Cadillac XLR roadster when the electrics failed, not realising he was just inches from the manual door release lever
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Picture the scene: you unlock your Cadillac XLR roadster with the intention of taking it for a spin on a glorious summer’s day. You unlock it, get in, shut the door and… oh, all the electrics have failed.

The car is electrically dead. The key fob seems to be as well. That’s a mighty slice of bad luck you’re having, says the car; better keep you in here for your own protection.

Man ‘Trapped’ In Car For 14 Hours Right Next To A Manual Door Release

The XLR’s electric doors refused to open for Peter Pyros, leaving him trapped inside a car on a warm day in Cleveland, Ohio. It was some 14 hours later, after the poor old gent had presumably ruined his seats as well as passing out from the heat, that a neighbour found him and called the fire brigade, who jump-started the car and removed Mr Pyros.

However, car makers tend not to make doors without mechanical fail-safes to prevent exactly this sort of thing from happening. The Corvette-based XLR has a fairly visible lever down by the side of the driver’s seat, complete with a picture of an open door on it. Had Mr Pyros looked down, he’d have seen it.

Man ‘Trapped’ In Car For 14 Hours Right Next To A Manual Door Release

The owner’s manual, in which the manual escape lever is described, wasn’t in the car. Mr Pyros is lucky to be alive; a man and his dog both died in 2015 when the same electrical failure blighted a 2007 Corvette in Port Arthur, Texas.

Now Mr Pyros says he wants to sue General Motors over his undoubtedly unpleasant ordeal. If we’re honest, we don’t rate his chances of success. Let this be a lesson to us all: it’s always worth reading the manual. You never know what sort of unexpectedly useful nuggets you’ll pick up.

Sources: Washington Post, USA Today

Comments

slevo beavo

If he wins his lawsuit then im suing natural selection for failing us.

09/14/2018 - 12:55 |
454 | 0

probably the best comment ever to be posted on CT

09/14/2018 - 13:49 |
60 | 0

👏

09/14/2018 - 14:23 |
12 | 0

its a white Cadillac owner
what else do you expect?

09/14/2018 - 18:13 |
46 | 10
Peanut_guy

Sueing the compagny because you are dumb seems to be a nice thing

09/14/2018 - 12:56 |
84 | 0

Welcome to The USA

09/14/2018 - 14:37 |
48 | 2
Jakob

So he wants to sue GM for his own stupidity? I don’t like GM either, but come on, that’s just ridiculous.

09/14/2018 - 13:00 |
160 | 0
Ray Sloan

In reply to by Jakob

i love GM. they’ll send you a chassis in a box

09/14/2018 - 18:25 |
20 | 0
Itsuki

What we all need in our lives is some doug demuro curiousity. If the old fella looked at every nook and cranny of the car looking for quirks and features maybe he would have got out sooner

09/14/2018 - 13:01 |
118 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Itsuki

True, could have even looked in the manual.
..but, yeah, this is America we’re talking about.

09/14/2018 - 14:41 |
38 | 2
CannedRex24

In reply to by Itsuki

add doug demuro to school education??

bill passes immediately

09/14/2018 - 18:12 |
40 | 0
Anonymous

why do Americans sue literally any one over stupid things even if its their not their fault? eg that woman that spilt her coffee on herself and then sued maccas or this guy.

09/14/2018 - 13:07 |
46 | 0
RodriguezRacer456 (Aventador SV) (Lambo Squad)

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Because despite being a stupid lawsuit, they somehow won. So people look at them as a way to get easy money.

09/14/2018 - 13:11 |
16 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

I’ll have to agree with you that in the U.S. people sue more than often because they lack common sense (e.g. don’t put your cat in the microwave….). But your example with the McDonald’s coffee case is way different than common perception says it is. Things like the coffee was way to hot leading to her getting seccond degree burns. There is quite a lot more to it than a women just spilling her coffee out of stupidity and then sue Macdonalds

09/14/2018 - 13:37 |
20 | 2
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

The woman who spilled the coffee had every right to sue McDonald’s, as the coffee was dangerously hot and caused her third degree burns around her pelvic area

All she actually wanted from McDonald’s was for them to help pay her medical bills from injuries that wouldn’t have happened if McDonald’s hadn’t served her coffee at temperatures high enough to cause third degree burns

09/14/2018 - 14:45 |
16 | 2
Manuel Kunz

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

In America there are many lawyers who are advertising that you should sue over every inconvenience you stumble upon.
And cases like the hot coffee or the woman which sued a cigarette company because her husband died of lung cancer and won make people hope that they get rich by that.

09/15/2018 - 16:25 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

Why did such a cool car have to ruined by a stupid old man?

09/14/2018 - 13:10 |
26 | 2
Porsche 959 (CarThrottle's only Facel Vega fanboy, still act

He looks exactly like the kind of guy who would own a Cadillac XLR.

09/14/2018 - 13:29 |
26 | 4
Burnout🔰(Rotary Fighter)(SaveCT)

Did he ever read the car’s manual?

09/14/2018 - 13:36 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

I know it’s hard for us to believe, but most people don’t enjoy going through their car’s owner’s manual.

And for you Europeans struggling to understand our litigious society in the States - we increasingly don’t believe in personal responsibility here. That’s why we have signs and stickers on everything. I’m surprised nobody has proposed a railing around the Grand Canyon.

09/14/2018 - 13:42 |
10 | 0
Tomislav Celić

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

“We don’t enjoy reading the owmers manual”

You are trapped in a car for 13 hours. I’d watch a documentary on makeup just because I would be bored.

09/14/2018 - 15:32 |
18 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Back in the day, when we didn’t have smartphones and so many dumb people, we would read labels off of cleaning products or read ANYTHING while we would go about our business in the toilet.
Maybe people should drop their smartphones and read their owners manual every once in a while instead…

09/14/2018 - 22:38 |
2 | 0
Man ‘Trapped’ In Car For 14 Hours Right Next To A Manual Door Release
Pierre 2

Of course he’s from my wonderful home state of Ohio 😒

09/14/2018 - 13:50 |
2 | 0

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