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
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