Once in a blue moon Bankstone News forgets to be all snide and sarky and feels a brief pang of benevolence.

At least that’s the only way we can explain our sudden impulse to relay the following potentially-lifesaving information to owners of Toyota vehicles (a demographic which doubtless includes virtually all readers of Bankstone News).

Simon Elstow of IAM Fleet and Drive and Survive seems like a singularly unflappable individual. Not that we’ve ever tried to flap him or anything, but we can’t imagine it would be easy.

Toyota drivers shouldn’t freak out if their accelerators jam, Simon says. “Keep calm,” he advises. No biggy, really.

If you’re driving a manual transmission vehicle all you have to do is “Press the brake firmly, then the clutch, disengaging the power. In an automatic, drivers should brake, wait for a reaction from the vehicle and then put the car into neutral.

“You can still steer, too,” he says, “So a stuck accelerator isn’t actually the disaster it sounds. Look for somewhere to stop safely, indicate and make the manoeuvre as you would under normal circumstances.”

So as you sit there by the roadside, heart still pounding, panting for breath, wiping cold sweat from your brow (and vaguely wondering what that fat bloke in the new Ford ahead is doing bobbing up and down with a burger in his hand), remember where you read this life-saving advice.

What, you already saw it in Fleet News? Oh well.

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