I did encounter some kind of strange activity regarding crashing vehicles, I hit a stand of trees at some force and destroyed my controls, I could not wait or do anything else other than bail out and kill myself in the process (the car still had quite a bit of speed).
Pressing the wait key results in "You need controls to drive from here" (Or whatever the standard message for that may be.)
You mean pressing wait key didn't move the vehicle so it can slow down by itself? Have you tried braking, handbrake?