When you bring a car to a stop and intend to exit the driver’s seat, it’s a good idea to ensure the car won’t move when it isn’t supposed to. After all, if it rolls and you aren’t there to hit the brakes, who will? Video posted to Reddit shows a ridiculously improbable series of events unfolding that seem to involve a WJ Jeep Grand Cherokee and a driver hopping out to check something under the hood. Actually, it’s that vehicle in particular which makes this whole event even stranger.
Pretty much as soon as the driver pops the hood, the Grand Cherokee starts moving in reverse. So what happened? Well, since the parking brake on a WJ is a standard console-mounted unit, it’s unlikely the driver accidentally released it when trying to pop the hood. At the same time, the WJ also used a console-mounted shifter, so it’s not a case of bumping the column.
Then again, it’s possible this Jeep was just never put into park. As our own Jason Torchinsky recounts, “coming back from the airport the other day a guy pulled up next to me, got out, left his SUV in D and it started to drive into the airport window.” Ah. Something like that might explain it.
So, the Grand Cherokee is moving in reverse with nobody behind the wheel. To make matters worse, another car’s coming. Everything’s set up for this to be a catastrophically expensive mistake, but it never happens. Not only does the Jeep somehow miss what appears to be a passing Toyota Echo, it bounds over a median and misses a storefront and a pole while charting a circular path and trying to buck its operator off its exterior. Talk about sheer luck, but recovery isn’t over yet.
The driver manages to open the door before, well, no longer having contact with the vehicle. I’ll admit the elapsed time between not being fully upright and losing grip on the handle is impressive, although it probably did a number on those soles. By now, it’s apparent that whatever’s wrong with the Jeep probably doesn’t require popping the hood. It’ll run just fine on its own. The hapless driver dusts themselves off, then somehow manages to close the door and fall over again as the twirly Jeep ride continues, before eventually managing to hop in and bring everything to a stop with the Grand Cherokee straddling the median.
That’s it. No property damage, no trail of paperwork, and nobody to believe the driver if this footage wasn’t out there. I mean, could you imagine telling someone what happened and them actually trusting that word? Anyway, let this serve as a reminder to ensure your vehicle won’t move when you get out of it. Apply the parking brake, make sure it’s in park or neutral, that sort of stuff. This Jeep driver got extremely lucky, while you might not.
Top graphic image: Reddit
This feels like a Russia video
Neutral isn’t great either. I’ve accidentally left my car in neutral a couple of times when I pulled up somewhere and then decided to shut it off and get out a few minutes later.
The thing is, as soon as I step out of the car and it starts to move I immediately realize something is wrong. This guy walked all the way to the front and opened the hood while the thing was rolling. That is some Darwin-award-level lack of awareness.
Bro (obvioulsy drunk) didn’t notice the car running backwards while looking straight into it
Thank Allah for Caster!
Some sort of combination of alcohol, stupid, drugs, and FCA or Stellantis. Kids, don’t try this at home.. or anywhere.
The oddest thing to me is that the episode begins with the car immobile and the driver unsuccessfully trying to open the hood, presumably that was because the hood release was not pulled or wasn’t pulled with enough force to release the hood.
Then he goes back into the vehicle and does something – only then does it begin moving.
So he must have moved the gear selector to reverse but how and why? The trunk release is nowhere near the gear selector and the position of the gear selector shouldn’t have any bearing on the ability to open the hood.
Maybe it was in neutral and he thought it needed to be in park but he didn’t fully move the selector?
I guess as Sid Bridge says we should just accept it’s a Jeep thing….
I see a lot of you trying to figure this out in the comments, but it’s a Jeep thing. You wouldn’t understand.
This reminds me of a speech byPresident Kang (or was it Vice President Kodos? I always get those guys mixed up), which I will paraphrase here:
“We must go backward, not forward…and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom!”
The Golden Era of one of the greatest shows. Thanks for that comment.
People are beginning to get a bit confused as to why you and your opponent are, well, constantly Rollin Hand.
“If you can think of a simpler way, I’d like to hear it!”
I love how the guy is unlatching the hood after it has already started moving… and then it hits him!
I hope this video has been Yakety Saxed already.
This just seems…. off.
Mostly the “I’m going to continue to look under the hood even though the car is moving backwards” part.
Kinda like “we have this bit we’re staging and have to follow through regardless.”
Could it have been something like that issue Fords had in the 70s where they would sometimes jump out of Park?
I love how the guy keeps working while the truck is backing up. Some people have no awareness.
I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Grand Cherokees out of control over the median. I watched Echo’s in the dark on the CCTV. All those moments would have be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Not enough happy faces for this perhaps will have to perform a Voight Kampff test on the members
Hope they are not all Nexus-9s…
Time to rust.
That gravity anomaly you feel in our quadrant – t’is Anton Yelchin spinning in his grave.
Also, this her video guy lost precious seconds figuring out when your car is moving on its own you don’t keep trying to open the hood to fix it. Many much precious seconds.
Despite being docile creatures, many Jeeps in the wild will try to find their way to David Tracy Land. While most are unsuccessful, it’s a homing instinct that can’t be ignored.
I thought finding their way to David Tracy land was returning to the earth as a pile of ferrous oxide, but I could be wrong.