** In this case, it's entirely possible that the crashes all happened within moments of the people passing out. Even if their foot stopped pressing down on the pedal immediately, momentum would have easily done the job. In a situation like that, the only drivers with their cars in gear that ''wouldn't'' have an crash of some sort would likely be the ones gridlocked in traffic (though they'd probably mostly have minor taps and fender benders, there wouldn't be anything major).
* Sorta happens in OneThousandWaysToDie. In case #412 ("Re-Tried"), an old man died behind the wheel of his Classive Chevy, during his daily ritual of sitting in the driver's seat and reminiscing about his life. The car went on driverless and hit a bank robber, killing him.

[[AC:RealLife]]
* A tragic real-life example occurred at the 1977 South African [[FormulaOne Grand Prix]] where driver Tom Pryce was killed instantly in a collision with a track marshal and his car continued on driverless for a whole straight before crashing.
** And a version in the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix, with Felipe Massa. He didn't die, but he kept going after the spring had hit him and left him unconscious. Of course since he had been going quite fast before the accident...
* Note that trains these days usually have a dead man's switch that has to be ''toggled'' periodically. Falling unconscious on one doesn't work.
* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfall_train_disaster Waterfall rail accident]] near Sydney, Australia in 2003. The driver suffered a heart attack, and was heavy enough that his foot kept the deadman switch on the floor depressed.

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