A BIG Brother winner has told of how he cheated death when his electric Jaguar’s brakes failed while his wife and two kids were in the car.
Craig Phillips, 52, has relived the horror moment he feared for his family’s lives when they approached a red light and the car wouldn’t stop.
The Big Brother star, who won the first series in 2000, has opened up about the heart-stopping incident in the wake of other EV owners having similar issues.
This week a Lancashire man claimed his car tore through red lights, over a roundabout and down the hard shoulder as he completely lost control of his Jaguar I-PACE.
It’s a tale that felt far too close to home for Craig.
The star said it was New Year’s Eve when he and his wife Laura Sherriff, 37, and their two young children were heading out for dinner in Merseyside.
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He was driving their £76,000 Jaguar I-Pace when he tried to brake as they approached a red light.
Craig claims the car failed to slow and he started to panic as two cars were stopped just yards ahead of him – with oncoming traffic zooming past too.
He told MailOnline: “I can’t describe to you what a terrifying feeling that was when the two children are in the back.
“The more I pushed down, the more it forced up, and the car carried on rolling.
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“There was no way of stopping. I had no options, I either mount the curb, run into the back of them or go into the lane coming towards me.”
The 52-year-old said luckily the light turned green, the halted cars started moving and he was able to just cruise through the intersection.
The dad explained that when he was trying to stop it was like the “hydraulic brake was pushing back”.
Craig said luckily he was able to pull off into a quieter road, and within about 30metres the brakes cut back in and his EV came to a stop.
He said his wife stared at him in shock and asked if he hadn’t been able to brake.
The dad recalled: “She could see my whole body stiffen up as I pressed my body weight on it.
“And I said ‘No I literally could not stop the car’. It was free-wheeling and it was pushing the brake back up on my leg.”
The couple decided they didn’t want to risk carrying on to the restaurant as they would have had to travel on motorways and headed straight home.
Craig claimed as they approached their house the brakes failed again.
Police box in ‘runaway Jaguar’
BY SARAH GREALISH and TOM HUSSEY
COPS swarmed to the M62 to save a driver after his electric car brakes failed and it accelerated uncontrollably to over 90mph on Wednesday.
Nine police vehicles managed to box in the £32,000 Jaguar I-PACE to end a horrifying 35-minute “movie-style” ordeal.
The driver, who says he is lucky to be alive, was coming home from work at around 2.30pm when he noticed a fault.
Within seconds the brakes failed and the car just went “faster and faster”, he told The Sun.
Bombing down the M62 at speeds of nearly 100mph, the driver was forced to tear through red lights and a slipway roundabout.
He then careered onto the hard shoulder to dodge traffic as he feared for his life.
Facing imminent death he rang 999 who scrambled a squad of nine cars that managed to intercept the I-PACE.
Officers from Merseyside and Greater Manchester Police used specialist tactics to ram the vehicle and block it in, bringing the hell-raising pursuit to a screeching end.
A Jaguar spokesperson told The Sun: “We are aware of an incident involving a Jaguar I-PACE on the M62 on the afternoon of March 6.
“An investigation is underway into the cause of the incident.”
Pictures from the scene show the black vehicle wedged in between several Matrix vehicles from Merseyside Police.
The horror unfolded on the eastbound carriageway between J11 for Birchwood and J12 for Eccles.
All lanes were closed for a short while with traffic stopped as police responded to the incident.
Two lanes later reopened, with a further two closed, causing major delays of almost an hour and congestion backed up ahead of rush hour.
A spokesperson for North West Motorway Police said: “Police currently have a lane 3 and 4 closure on M62 EB J11 to 12.
“This is following the use of tactics to stop an electric vehicle with an electric fault where the driver was unable to brake.
“Motorway officers from Merseyside, Cheshire and GMP brought the vehicle to a safe stop.”
The star said he went straight to Jaguar, telling them he was too scared to drive it again.
He also claimed this was one of the many issues he’d encountered with the EV since splashing £80,000 on it.
A Jaguar Land Rover told The Sun: “We are taking these claims by Mr Phillips very seriously and are looking into his complaint.
“Our client experience as well as the safety of our clients and vehicles is JLR’s highest priority.”
Just days ago Nathan Owen told of how he was taken on a 90mph terror ride down the M62 when his electric car’s brakes failed.
As the car accelerated on its own and with Nathan facing imminent death, cops managed to box in the runaway EV to end the 35-minute high speed horror on Wednesday.
I’m all for an electric car but I didn’t expect that.
Badly shaken by the ordeal, the 31-year-old from Bolton, Lancs, told The Sun: “It was like a movie.
“I could’ve crashed, it could’ve killed me, it could’ve killed somebody else.”
In October last year another man recalled the terrifying moment his EV went berserk and his brakes stopped working.
Brian Morrison, 54, was driving home near Glasgow when nine warning lights flashed at once.
He slammed the brakes of his MG electric car – but found that he was unable to slow down.
The EV driver called cops while still behind the wheel, and was escorted by officers for 15 minutes.
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But he only came to a stop when told to crash into a police van so he didn’t end up on an upcoming main road.
He told The Sun: “I’m still a bit I’m still shaken up, to be honest. I’m all for an electric car but I didn’t expect that.”
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Jane Matthews
