This has been my observation. It is usually an older driver in a Honda CRV or Toyota something.
Kamikaze Elders?
Have you been reading Dr. Leveson?
From National Highway Safety Administration:
The most consistent finding across data sources was the striking overrepresentation of females in pedal misapplication crashes, relative to their involvement in all types of crashes.
Females were the drivers in nearly two-thirds of the pedal misapplication crashes identified in both crash databases and in the media scan. Possible explanations might include greater exposure by women where these crashes occur most often (parking lots); a poorer “fit” in their cars due to shorter stature, which may increase the likelihood of a pedal application error; or a disproportionately high rate of one or more functional deficits that contribute to pedal errors, such as neuropathy. Explaining this anomaly may be important as a starting point in designing crash countermeasures.
The pedal application error analysis results for driver age were compelling. When the percentage of crash-involved drivers was plotted against 5-year cohorts from 16-to-20 age group to the 76+ group, both the North Carolina database and the news media reports demonstrated a marked U-shaped relationship. Over-involvement in pedal misapplication crashes was especially pronounced among drivers 76 and older in the media. This may reflect the sensational nature of such events that increases the chances that the media will report them, often in multiple outlets. The NMVCCS analysis results did not mirror this pattern, instead showing relatively even levels of crash involvement for young, middle-aged, and older drivers; but this should be interpreted with caution as this database excludes crashes in parking lots.
The single factor that may explain over involvement in pedal misapplication crashes at both ends of the driver age distribution is poor executive function. The relevant areas of the brain do not fully develop until young adulthood, and have been shown to decline with advanced age. The participating Driver Rehabilitation Specialists supported this premise, having observed pedal application errors among their clients who perform poorly in clinical tests of executive function. This was not limited to older drivers—panelists reported that young patients with diagnoses of autism and attention-deficit disorder are more prone to these errors, too.
All the new Target stores have large concrete balls in front of their stores. They are painted red like the Target logo, and have PR value, but they also stop cars from going through the front doors. It’s a lot cheaper to repaint the concrete ball than to replace plate glass windows & doors.
I’ve never understood mixing up the gas and the brake thing. I rear ended a car once and my subconscious took over to the point that my feet went to the clutch and brake so automatically that I didn’t even kill the engine when I hit and came to a stop. Most folks’ feet know where the pedals are, it doesn’t require thought or decision making.
…but a few don’t, and those are the ones that end up this way.
I once returned a Home Depot rental truck, and while attempting to park it in front of the store, I put my left foot on the clutch and pushed. Except there wasn’t a clutch: my left foot had found the brake pedal and pushed it hard, slamming the truck to a noisy and sudden stop. It was over in an instant. And when someone screws up the brake and accelerator, it takes just slightly longer than an instant, but not much. By the time you’ve figured out what your mistake is, you’re in the candy bar aisle.
No one does any task perfectly every time. You know where your fingers are. Have you ever injured them? In a door, while cutting food, with a hammer, etc.? Ever even once? Clearly you don’t actually know where your fingers are all the time with zero defects.
If you do ever happen to put your foot on the wrong pedal, whatever happens next will be over before you can figure out your mistake. As **Machine Elf **said.
When people pray for “Jesus take the wheel,” they forget that cars weren’t around 2000 years ago. Jesus: “Shit, lady, I don’t know how to work this contraption. You’re on your own.”
Of course they create new problems.
The target balls are anti-theft devices. They’re so bad guys can’t drive a van through the glass doors, load up with goodies, and beat feet before the cops show up.
Target’s are a little unusual in the shape, but lots of big-box stores have similar arrangements intended to defeat vehicular smash and grab thefts.
That’s just it. You know exactly where your feet are and where the pedals are. Until the one time circumstances lead to your feet not being where you know they exactly are. And when the car behaves unexpectedly, your reaction is precisely correct because you know exactly where your feet are. Except you don’t, and it isn’t. And unless you’re very lucky, by the time you figure it out, you’ve hit something.