Limiters and 'runaway' truck
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As you will be aware there has been much publicity regarding a particular Scania truck that for various technical reasons was able to drive at speed down the Ml motorway.
This incident occurred back in May.
As a direct result of our investigations into this incident, it was established that certain Scania 4-Series vehicles (non-EDC versions only), could have their road speed limiter over-ridden by the simple act of turning back
the ignition key.
While this was not the actual muse of the problem in the May incident, it was nevertheless something that caused us concern.
Consequently our parent company in Sweden was notified. As a result we can advise readers that an official vehicle recall to remedy this matter has now been launched in association with the Vehicle Inspectorate.
In addition, the speed limiter circuits for all vehicles that have been produced since the incident in question have also been re-designed.
We would like to point out that the opening paragraph in your article was not strictly correct as current production vehicles, to our knowledge, cannot have their speed limiters over-ridden as easily as you are suggesting.
On a general note, it does not matter how technically complicated we make our circuitry, whether related to the speed limiter or not, some individuals, for reasons best known to themselves, will always find a way to tamper with them.
Such unauthorised tampering could prove to be illegal and is therefore clearly something that we would not condone under any circumstances.
Paul Fisher, General service manager. Scania (GB), Tongwell, Milton Keynes, Buck*i.