A Barnsley mum-of-four convicted of crashing into two other cars says she only ploughed into oncoming traffic when her driver assist technology "took over" the wheel. Diane Bryan, 58, got a brand new Toyota RAV4 Excel through the motability scheme just six months before she was involved in a smash. Here's she claims the accident only happened when the car "took over" and left unable to turn the wheel.
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00:00 My name is Diane Bryan. On the 17th of December 2022, I was involved in a road traffic collision.
00:11 My car crossed the white line, hit a car, then a third car hit me and we ended up buried
00:21 in a hedge. My car had dynamic driver assist. It was a Toyota RAV4, it was six months old
00:36 and nothing that should have worked, worked. The car basically took over. As we were coming
00:42 round a very gentle bend, I was doing about 36, it was a 40, and the car didn't take the
00:50 bend. The steering would not let me centre. The car didn't centre itself as it should
00:55 have done. Crossed the white line, took, we ended up taking the side out of the first
01:05 car and then as we were going towards the hedge, the second car hit us. The airbags
01:10 didn't inflate, even though we hit the hedge quite hard. The call emergency services feature
01:20 didn't work. The accident collision precautions where the car's supposed to brake didn't work.
01:29 The steering wheel would not let me centre the car itself. I did have an adaption on
01:36 the steering wheel because of my disability. That adaption was a control on the steering
01:45 wheel that had all the buttons on it for indicators, windscreen wipers, what have you. That got
01:51 pulled out of my hand and then started spinning. I told the police this at the time. I was
02:02 then told that the police considered that I had been driving without due care and attention.
02:09 They offered me a driving course, which I accepted. I just wanted to put the whole thing
02:14 behind me. I've been driving since I was 22 and I've never had a point on my licence and
02:21 I've never had an accident. For reasons outside of my control, the company that deal with
02:33 the driving course couldn't do the course for me because they didn't have an adapted
02:39 vehicle and I didn't have a car on the road because mine had been crushed. So my only
02:46 option then was to go to court. So I went to court, I spoke to the judges, I told them
02:53 exactly what happened, which is exactly what I'd said to the policewoman on the day of
02:59 the accident. The judges didn't believe us. They said that no car can do that and they
03:10 gave me six points on my licence and the highest fine that they could. I was driving that car.
03:18 I know that that steering wheel would not correct itself. It was almost like we'd hit
03:23 a patch of ice or mud and the car went into a skid, but it was all very slow. The steering
03:32 wheel would not let me take back control of the car. The airbags didn't go off. The pre-collision
03:43 where the car breaks and is supposed to mitigate what's about to happen, that didn't work.
03:53 The engine wouldn't switch off. The car took over. I reported it to Toyota. I reported
04:00 it to the insurance company and I still got six points on my licence and the highest fine.
04:09 As for now, I've got a new car. It does have the option to have driver assist. It's got
04:17 its own programme. I will never ever have that switched on. I am petrified that the
04:23 car is going to take over itself again. I am also not driving anywhere near as much.
04:30 I'm quite nervous. I'm petrified of getting any more points. I just don't trust the technology
04:40 that they're putting in these vehicles. I just want to make people aware of, in my opinion,
04:49 the dangers of dynamic driver assist. It can take over the car.
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