This was a weird article from the Washington Post today. Apparently, a MINI hit a gas meter in Tyson's Corner causing an explosion. Maybe I'm not reading the article correctly, but I don't think anyone was actually driving it at the time. No word on how the MINI is doing at this time, but I doubt prognosis is good!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...001284_pf.html

"...
Schmidt said the car, a Mini Cooper, was in the parking lot of the apartment development when it went out of control and headed toward the gas meter, which was about 40 feet away. It was not known why the vehicle went out of control.
The car jumped a curb, struck the meter and came to rest adjacent to the building.
The meter was sheared off, and escaping natural gas was ignited, Schmidt said. He said a small explosion blew out windows in a first-floor apartment, and several apartments in the building caught fire. All levels of the building were damaged, Schmidt said."

 

We were NOT down at Tyson's Galleria last night, I swear !! Tuesday, yes. But not yesterday.

Yikes, what a mess ! Only one minor injury... could have been MUCH worse.

 

Cars go out of control all the time ... with drivers. In this case, that MINI owner is going to be paying somebody bigtime (either directly or via insurance).

hehe, maybe it went into limp mode and the driver paniced

 

I had a car in a mall parking lot once start to roll back at me. No one in the car. They had not set the handbrake and the thing started to roll. I just got out of the way..........It went up against the curb behind with no damage to anyone. Don't know about the car. I did not stop to look.

 

Very interesting, at the bottom of the article they referenced another incident where an out of control car jumped a curb and did the same thing.

 

Wow - I drive right near there very frequently to go to the bank... I might have to go this afternoon and take a short detour to scope it out!

 

Hey I work right around there on Greensboro & Westpark. Ill have to do a drive by.

Poor poor Mini.... :(

At least no one was hurt too badly.

 

If the reporter at the Post had a sense of humor he would have said it caused a MINI EXPLOSION... I know it's corny but I'm sitting around the house bored today...

 

I drove by there late this afternoon to take a look. WOW. Seems our MINIs can be quite destructive when they get in a bad mood (or even suicidal, as the case appears to be).

I took some pics of the aftermath... enjoy.

 

Wish we could see pics of the car

 

should be leaving your car in first gear when parked, just in case if you forget the parking brake.

 

I never leave my car in first.

When I was 7-8 my moms car slid out of her underground garage spot, when I went down to the car to get something. Not knowing how to drive stick and assuming I could just slide the car forward 10 feet, I hopped in and started it. It lurched forward, jumped two curbs (those ones that keep you from going to far forward in a spot), and then i was in the wrong aisle. Only going like 7-10 mph, I circled the car around, and got it back into the spot. And over the curbs again... And into the building manager's car. Mom wasn't happy.

No, I don't leave my car in first. Wouldn't want it to happen again.

 

Just checking in. That's a little close to home (other side of Tyson's). When reading the artical I thought that perhaps someone left a car in nutral and did not set the brake correctly. Then the car drifted into the meter. But from the pics the parking lot looks to flat for that to have happened. I hope the owner is ok.

 

Not sure what caused the mini to do this.

I know I had a '79 cougar and the column shifter was flaky. It would drop out of Park on it's own in certain conditions when the weight of the shifter was more than the resistance to move the shifter into reverse. I believe an episode of Cops featured a Tbird that did this in a parking lot while idling. It circled in reverse for hours before someone was able to jump in and stop it.

I've been leaving my car in 1st w/out the parking brake since bluminiboy warned me about the shoes freezing to the rotors.

 

singed eyebrows but I'm otherwise ok..

 

WHAT??? You are okaY?

 

Please tell us your joking Krut

 

Was it a CR MINI Did you do it Krut?

 

He's joking. I know he is, because I talked to him on the phone yesterday afternoon, and he was way too calm for that to have happened to him (or his MINI) on Saturday night.

Nice one though Krut - you got 'em.

 

Oh it's not April 1 yet?

 

 

You won't believe this...I just found out that there is a guy in my office that lives in that building and he is locked out of his apartment for the next 2-4 weeks because of the damage done to the building. His apartment wasn't even on fire.

He is not very happy with MINIs right now...he cut up all my MINI pictures on my desk....just kidding. But he is disgruntled though, they won't allow any access to his place at all.

Just thought I would share.

 

It probably looks like a funeral procession down there with all the DC area MINI's swinging by to have a look

Meanwhile residents are thinking that the circling MINI's are looking for another opertunity to attack