I can tell you from personal experience ALL ABS systems refuse to stop the vehicle when they act up, many of my work vans have done this as well, though not as bad as the DI.

The problem is the valves in the ABS modulator, they get gunked up and then stick open/closed and let to much brake fluid or not enough brake fluid through.
Having a default setting of not working at all cant happen because it has no idea there is a problem.
Basically ABS works like this, you press the brake pedal, the master cylinder pressurizes the brake fluid and pushes it to the ABS modulator, it then sends the fluid to the wheels, each wheel has its own valve inside the ABS modulator.
The ABS speed sensors are nothing more than electro magnets that ride over a exciter ring.
This ring has notches on it, the ABS computer knows by counting the notches how fast the wheel is turning, so think of the ABS sensor and the notches as a light switch, high spot equals closed circuit, low spot equals open circuit.
The computer then compares the 4 sensors.
If one sensor detects no movement or very slow movement AND a closed brake light circuit (foot on brake pedal) it assumes you are trying to stop and the slower wheel is sliding, so it closes the valve to that wheel thus removing brake pressure from that wheel allowing it to free wheel (start turning again), it then opens the valve allowing brake pressure to stop that wheel again.
It repeats this valve open/close at a very very fast rate.
The problem is when this valve sticks closed no brake pressure goes to the wheel(s) even though you have your foot to the floor and the brake pedal is hard.
The brake pedal is hard because you are putting the max amount of brake pressure to the ABS modulator, but it is not getting to the wheels because the valves are stuck closed. (removing the ABS pump fuse removes the power from the ABS modulator and the valves stay open no matter what allowing normal braking)
This is why it is so important to flush the brake fluid every 2 years, to prevent the ABS modulator valves from getting gummed up and sticking.
Some are more prone to it than others, all import's require brake fluid flushes every 24 months no matter what.

 

That is the reason why I used the word "idiot". The first thing I do when I get into a car is put the seat belt on, even if I forgot, I would put it on before I would call 911. I think most of us would.
I agree, it would however be hard if not impossible to keep a rover doing 80 on a curving canyon road.
I still think putting the transmission in gear 1 would of slowed him, even if it ruined his transmission... Life vs bad transmission/death.. You chose!

 

So after reading both articles and the subsequent comments in both articles I'm going to call bs. Yes, sad the guy died, heart goes out BUT, wtf. Like everyone else has stated, 80mph? Yes p38 but, stuck throttle and breaks go out? Panic mode but called 911?

He was driving down a steep canyon road, was he riding his breaks? If his throttle was stuck again, shift into n, cut power, never should have seen 60 if it was that steep. Being an unintelligent wild guess, something tells me it wasn't an accident on his part.

Now for your abs fuse question, if you're having issues, pull it, if you're not having issues but still are questioning, pull it.

 

Even Murphy's Law doesn't stack the cards against you that high. With all the things that occurred at the same instance it makes me wonder if the inlaws to be maybe caused his demise before he could marry into the family.

 

That's a pretty steep road to climb there too.

 

Here is where I bring real life experience. If you shift to gear 1 at 80mph, nothing is going to get ruined. NOTHING will happen. I have done it many times. The auto transmission protects itself and it will shift one gear down only, regardless of the position of the stick. If and after the car slows down enough, it will shift another gear and so forth until 1 will kick in. Basically, you have to use the brakes to slow down, to allow the trans to shift down to 1.
With a manual transmission, is a different story, with similar results. With a manual transmission, if you are in 5th gear going 80mph and you decide to shift to 1, 99% of the time you risk getting stuck in neutral, which, if downhill, means increasing speed. The synchronizing mechanism will not allow the shift to 1. There will be a lot of grinding noise, but nothing else. The fixed gear train is moving too slow to allow the gear 1, spinning too fast, to engage. Now, the other 1%, if you pull out of 5th, go into neutral, let the clutch out, (this is called double shifting, which a few know about, and fewer understand) rev the engine to its maximum, to speed up the fixed train to come closer to the gear 1 speed, and then clutch in and stick to 1, it may go in. Voila, you made it, when let the clutch out in 1 at 80mph, the engine RPM will shoot to the maximum and real slow down will occur. It may ruin the engine, but not the transmission.
That's real life and not speculation. That is what would happen in a car. In a semi-truck, with 20 tons of payload that will not allow for the tires to loose traction, a union at the shaft may snap, but that is another chapter.

 

Let me tell you another real life experience that I think is worth sharing. A few weeks ago I was ridding with a friend on I-55 (Chicago-Peoria) on a Toyota FJ Cruiser with Auto transmission. He owns several sport cars, all manual transmission, and he had just purchased the FJ. We are cruising at 70 mph, when he decides to pass a another car and he reached for the stick and shift to P. (On his mind he was going from 6th to 5th). You know what happened??? Almost nothing. No explosion of the tranny, not tire squealing, the car simply shut off as if he had turn the key to the off position, we kept rolling and slowing down, he moved to the shoulder and stopped (with the brakes). Turn the key, started right up and we came home. (well there were some cussing and other expressions but that is not mechanically relevant). Now, I will not venture to extrapolate this experience to other cars, since other cars, specially older, may have broken the weak pin that locks the tranny in P and may have acted differently.

 

Can anyone help confirm this? My parents just bought a D1 - and I know they would prefer to know their pedal will always be connected to the wheels.

 

It is the 40 amp fuse labeled "ABS PUMP" in the engine compartment. It is held in place with two screws.

 

lot of conjecture in this thread, amusing read though!