Texas Teen Takes Terrifying 90-Minute Drive At 120 MPH After Car Malfunctions

It’s like watching a sequence from Grand Turismo or Need for Speed. A malfunctioning Hyundai Elantra led a teenager down a Texas highway at terrifying speeds for almost 90 minutes. But in Elez Lushaj’s case, it was all too real.

The Texas teen was driving his 2011 model Hyundai down Highway 183 in December when the vehicle suddenly took on a mind of its own—think Herbie or Christine without the talking. Or maybe at those speeds KITT would be a more appropriate example, but I digress.

The vehicle accelerated to nearly 120 mph, and the braking system failed. Panicked, Lushaj called 911 for help, and a bewildered dispatcher urged him to try turning off the car, standing on the brake pedal and putting the car in neutral, but nothing worked. As police struggled to keep up with the car and warn traffic away from the speeding compact, all they could do was hope it would run out of gas before Lushaj met with a terrible accident.

Eventually, Lushaj lost control after swerving to miss a semi on Interstate 30. The Elantra rolled four times, leaving the teenager conscious and with several broken bones—but in better shape than he could have been considering his speed. Emergency responders actually had to tear off the car’s roof to remove him from the vehicle. Police commended Lushaj for keeping the car on the road and away from population centers for as long as he did.

For its part, Hyundai says it hasn’t heard anything about the case. Spokesperson Jim Trainor told WFAA it is “extremely unlikely for simultaneous and spontaneous total system failures for the brakes, accelerator and transmission to occur at the same time,” adding that Hyundai would like to investigate but has not been contacted about the incident.

Oh you just wait, Jim. My bet is you haven’t been contacted yet at the advice of Lushaj’s attorneys. You just wait.