The runaway diesel engine is an interesting thing. The condition can be brought on by a number of factors. In this case it was apparently caused by overfilling the engine with oil. With no throttle to vary engine speed and a motor literally consuming its own oil, death is imminent. This poor van’s engine most likely got a mouthful of engine oil that was forced out of a breather vent into the intake tract. 

With that oil acting like a big infusion of fuel for the engine, the revs pickup, and when that happens the engine begins to suck more oil out of the vent and things quickly spiral out of control. The only way to stop it is to block the air intake of the engine and choke it off. In many cases, like this one, there’s no stopping it and the motor runs until it breaks the connecting rods or the crank or simply runs out of lube to burn and locks up tight.

This Toyota van releases enough crap into the air to offset 100 Priuses for a year!