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A man from Cleveland, Ohio was trapped inside his Cadillac XLR for nearly 14 hours after the electrical system stopped working and rendered the car’s push-button doors and windows useless. The ordeal happened when he decided to take his car on a short drive late last month, but he never even made it out of his garage.
According to the Detroit Free Press, Peter Pyros got in his Cadillac XLR around 10 a.m. but when he shut the door and tried to start the engine nothing happened. Allegedly, the electrical system malfunctioned, which also affected the horn, windows, door locks, and the XLR’s convertible hardtop. As a result—Pyros was stranded inside his own vehicle. Unfortunately, Pyros lives alone and his neighbors were at work at that time of day.
Pyros claims that he began to pound on the windows hoping someone would hear him and help him break out, which unfortunately didn’t happen. He eventually passed out twice and suffered from heat exhaustion during the incident before he was finally rescued at around 11:20 p.m. by a neighbor that came over to Pyros’ house to let him know his garage door was open.
The fire department eventually arrived and had Pyros pop the hood so they could jump start the vehicle and open the doors, before transporting him to the hospital for treatment overnight.
“I actually scribbled a letter to my nephew, I wrote, ‘This is a terrible death, but I love you.’ I didn’t want anyone to think I committed suicide,” Pyros told the Detroit Free Press.
The XLR has a mechanical door release located on the floor near the driver’s seat but many owners, including 75-year-old Pyros, are unaware of this. To make matters even worse, he did not have the owner’s manual in the vehicle with him at the time. Pyros has hired a lawyer after the incident and claims that he has had issues sleeping since.
“Looking at all avenues of litigation, we are in touch with other attorneys who have pursued similar actions against General Motors,” said John Meros, partner at Schulman, Schulman and Meros in Cleveland, in a statement to the Detroit Free Press.
General Motors released a statement saying it provides ways to manually unlock doors in the event of a power loss and owners should refer to the manual for their specific vehicle to locate the mechanical backup.
