History Main / DeadFootLeadfoot

When the driver of a vehicle is shot, otherwise killed, or rendered unconscious and instantly suffers a muscle spasm that extends the driver's leg, pushing the accelerator pedal all the way to the floor. Then instant rigor mortis sets in, keeping it there. Naturally, this causes the vehicle to accelerate to ludicrous speed, putting anyone in the way of this driving dead man at mortal risk.

* A non-lethal variant in ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheMovie'', where a bus driver faints at the wheel and has a metal leg that pins the gas down, causing Gerald to take control and [[ChekhovsSkill utilize his gaming skill at a runaway bus game]] to steer them to safety until the driver comes to.

* The bus chase scene in ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious 7''.

* A tragic real-life example occurred at the 1977 South African [[UsefulNotes/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.

** The case of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Macao ''Miss Macao'']] also qualifies. The Consolidated Catalina seaplane was boarded by four armed men who held the passengers and crew at gunpoint. When the passengers refused to hand over their money, one of them shot the pilot, and the weight of his body on the controls sent the plane crashing into the Pearl River Delta. The only survivor was one of the would-be robbers.

* The driver of a car is disabled by an object falling off of a truck in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgKMK_t1S1M this episode]] of ''{{Rescue 911}}'' and his car continues driving.

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* The first episode of ''Series/FlashForward'' did this on the largest scale yet. When the blackout occurs, ''every driver on the planet'' falls victim. (Granted, they only fall unconscious for a couple of minutes, but some do not survive the resulting crashes.)

* Averted in ''SilentScope'''s highway level, where shooting a driver immediately causes the vehicle to spin out and crash.

* The first episode of ''FlashForward'' did this on the largest scale yet. When the blackout occurs, ''every driver on the planet'' falls victim. (Granted, they only fall unconscious for a couple of minutes, but some do not survive the resulting crashes.)

* Happens in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' if the driver of a car is killed. In GrandTheftAutoV, it also happens when the player takes out the pilot of an aircraft when it's in mid-air.

!!'''As a DeathTrope, several if not all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.'''

* A space example of this happens to Racetrack in ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}''.

* Happens near the beginning of the film version of ''Film/TheFugitive''.

* Happens in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' if the driver of a car is killed.

** This was realised horrifically with the strange case of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522 Helios Airways Flight 522]]. An error in preparing the plane for the flight meant that the pressurisation switch had been turned off, and wasn't turned on again before the plane took off. As the plane climbed, the crew and virtually everyone else on board (sans one flight attendant who managed to reach a handheld oxygen tank) passed out from a lack of oxygen and low air pressure. The plane proceeded until it reached Athens. By this point, everyone but the flight attendant was ''dead''. The plane proceeded to fly around the city of Athens on Autopilot for almost two hours, unable to land because there was no one able to control the plane and carry out the landing sequence, which is always dealt with by the crew. Fighter pilots noticed the flight attendant attempting to control the jet, but with the attendant unable to communicate with the pilots or understand the controls, the plane kept circling the city. In a last ditch attempt, the flight attendant tried to land the plane, but the plane's fuel had ran out, and the aircraft slammed into the ground.

* Sorta happens in ''Series/OneThousandWaysToDie''. In case #412 ("Re-Tried"), an old man died behind the wheel of his classic 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.

* This is one possible cause of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinton_train_collision Hinton train collision]] in Canada in 1986. A CN freight train ran a red signal and collided head-on with a passenger train, killing 23 people, including the crew in the engine. While the lead locomotive was equipped with a "dead man's pedal," the subsequent investigation found that it was common practice for CN crew to keep the pedal depressed with a heavy object so they didn't need to keep their feet on it. The engineer was found to have a number of health problems that put him at high risk for a heart attack or stroke. It also didn't help that the crew was also suffering from a severe lack of sleep due to the shifting train schedules. One possible explanation is that the engineer was incapacitated and with the dead man's pedal depressed, the train kept running when it should have stopped.

* The bus chase scene in TheFastAndTheFurious 7.