KUN0029 4 GEN 0293 KUWAIT /KUNA-QWS2 FRANCE-CARS-RUNAWAY Frances Renault to publish results on supposed runaway car PARIS, Oct 6 (KUNA) -- Engineers at French car maker Renault are expected to publish the results of tests Wednesday on a luxury sedan that allegedly went awry and drove for an hour at around 200 kilometres an hour with its cruise control completely jammed. The car, a "VelSatis" model, was driving at 140 kilometres an hour last Sunday on the A71, when it suddenly sped up while overtaking a truck. The driver was unable to stop the car from driving at 200 kilometres an hour despite braking, shifting to neutral and trying to turn off the ignition. In desperation, he called the police to warn them of his predicament and he asked for help getting through a toll that was ahead. Fortunately, he managed to stop the car about 20 kilometres before the toll. Even the police could not keep up with the speeding vehicle, an officer said. A policeman speaking on TF1 television here said that "the driver was very panicked and frightened" and he did not seem to be playing a joke, as has been suggested by Renault executives, who find the whole story "improbable." Nonetheless, the driver was forced to drive in the emergency lane at times in order to avoid a collision and he said he thought he was going to die. Renault is examining the complicated computer systems in the car to see if there is a problem, but a spokesman at the group expressed scepticism. He also said that an onboard computer would have registered a lot of data to determine if the car had gotten out of control or not. Despite the companys apparently disbelief, stories were beginning to emerge Wednesday of other incidences of problems with cruise control cars. (End) jk.bn KUNA 061314 Oct 04NNNN