OMG You just never know!!

[hitekcountry]

I was a Costco Wednesday and I had just got back to my car and was about to load up my purchases when I heard a car accelerate at full throttle in the parking lot. I looked up and saw the SUV that was parked directly across from me rapidly backing out of the space and the next thing I noticed was the driver's door is open and the driver is falling out of the car. She landed on the pavement and fell up against the left front tire to where I couldn't tell if it pushed her aside or ran over part of her. The car which had the wheel turned to the right went in a circle until it hit the third car down and came to a stop. The woman was only about 15' from me (on the ground) so I was the first to get to her. I asked her if she was ok which she didn't answer directly she just responded "I don't know what happened, it just took off on me". I still wanted to determine if she was hurt or not so I asked her if any part of her got run over and her response was "no that's my car, I was driving". She then tried to get up and went about 8' and then sat back down on the ground. By this time a women who I thought was a Costco employee was dealing with her and seemed to be dealing with her better than I could. I noticed a number of items scattered on the ground in the area where the woman had fallen which turned out to be pieces of the woman's cell phone so I picked them up and gave them to her. She than asked me if I would check her car and shut it off, which I did, but what I found was that someone had already shut it off. When I walked back she was up walking around and apparently talking to her husband on the phone giving him directions to get to Costco. So I just loaded up my car and left.

The following scenario is what I think happened.

She opened the driver's door while she was talking on the phone. Got in, keys in her right hand and cell in her left, door is still open, needed a free hand to close the door, so she put the key in the ignition and, well might as well start it. She puts her right foot on the brake and starts the car, still talking on the phone, puts the car in reverse and OH WAIT! the door is still open. Left hand is tied up with the phone call, right hand is free so she twists to the left and leans left to reach the door with her right hand, this twists her right knee to the left such that the pressure on the brake is no longer pushing down but is now pushing to the right. Her foot next slips off the brake and hit the accelerator, and the car shoots backward. At this point she is still leaning out to the left as the car accelerates backward. She needed to get back into the seat and the natural instinct is to grab something to pull herself back into the car. She reaches with her right hand, grabs the steering wheel on the right side but as she pulls instead of pulling herself up she turns the wheel sharply to the right which in turn throws her out the door.


You don't normally expect to see a car accelerate full throttle out of a parking space. If I had been just 10 seconds later getting to my car I would have been right in the path of that out of control car. Could I have reacted fast enough and jumped out of the way in time? I don't know. Fortunately no one else was in that path at that time

 

[deepNdirt]

Very good assumption......if this is in fact the way it could have happen she probably wasn't aware of it, I'm sure she has an all together different storie for her hubby, ( it just took off while I was holding the brake down)
and he's probably looking for a lawyer by now, Those dang cell phones and driving do not mix,
however I hope she was OK,

 

[hitekcountry]

I'm sure she believes she had her foot on the brake the whole time.

 

[BungeeII]

All that left hand, right leg stuff reminded me of something...

2 weeks ago a bicyclist (in full tour garb) was peddling north on a 55 mph road. As I came up behind him and began veering to the left to clear him, he decided to scratch his own back. The itch must have been up between the shoulder blades, because he was reaching for all he's worth. No problem, except the more he reached, the more he pulled to the left. He ended up in the center yellow line in the road. If I had been as distracted as your driver in the parking lot, somebody would have been picking up little bits of a Schwinn instead of a Motorola.

 

[mjncad]

Sounds plausible to me hitecountry. I second the comment that cell phones and driving don't mix. "Hang up and drive!" or "Park and talk!"

 

[mjncad]

2 weeks ago a bicyclist (in full tour garb) was peddling north on a 55 mph road.

I call these bicyclists 'Spandex Fairies.'

 

[Transit]

I have seen some real dumb a $ $ things, most but not all women.

1) walking across a three lain street against the light not in the cross walk. Mouth going 200 mph.
2) walking along and stepping into space. Did not see the steps.
3) Walking, pushing a baby in a stroller, hands free with the phone cradled between her head and shoulder. She has her head tilted to the right not paying attention to what is going on to the left, mouth going 200 mph. a car is backing out of a drive way and runs over the stroller. My sympathy was with the driver.

 

[Ductape]

One question......... was she blonde???

I'm just sayin'......

 

[riptides]

Maybe it was the floor mats? Those things seem to be in the news of late.

 

[jimmyj]

My Company has retail stores in strip malls and you would be shocked at how often people mix up the gas and brake and drive through the store fronts. Most often it's senior citizens and once in a while it's somebody who's had a medical episode in their car.

They usually panic and stay on the gas. I have seen video of cars smashing through the glass or wall and then driving at full throttle 30 or 40 feet into the store and finally stopping aginst racking (but the driver is still on the gas and the wheels spin and burn the floor). Thank heavens we have not had anyone killed but it's very scary and it happens a lot. A few of our clerks have been very shaken up by it as have some customers.

 

[chew]

I think it would be interesting to hear what the ratio of accidents like that are for automatics vs standard. My girlfriends car is an 09 Honda fit. You pop the clutch with no gas = no go.

(amazing car by the way. Moved across the country with it. Roof rack, carrier, skis and 400lbs of luggage plus us. 35MPG worked out from 6000km of receipts)

 

[hitekcountry]

you would be shocked at how often people mix up the gas and brake and drive

They usually panic and stay on the gas.

I think in this case it was only her being thrown out that got her foot off the gas, because it was after she was out of the car that it coasted until it bumped into the other car, it looked like another 10' or so it would have come to a stop on it's own.

 

[chew]

I just remembered this and had to add it. My friend had his car over to a buddy's apartment when they hear all this commotion out side. They go to the balcony to see another car sitting on top of his girlfriends car! He had arrived there about 10min before this happened.

What happened is a woman around the age of 35 was getting in her car to leave. She was in the parking lot to the left of the snowbank. Started the car and began to pull out in drive. (This is where it gets strange) She said she thought she ran over her mother and went to stomp on the break but hit the gas and froze in panic.

Her mother was never there, just her and when her husband arrives he said she's been having some problems. Why they let her drive is beyond me but i'm glad no one was hurt as this could of been alot worse.


The car went about 15 feet through the air!

 

[hitekcountry]

I've always been conscious of the fact that little fender bender type accidents are quite common in parking lots. I just never gave it much though that there is also some risk of serious injury or worse. I think from now on I'll walk through parking lots with a different level of awareness.

 

[hitekcountry]

I'm sure she has an all together different storie for her hubby

Yea I'd sure like to hear what that story would be.

 

[deepNdirt]

I just remembered this and had to add it. My friend had his car over to a buddy's apartment when they hear all this commotion out side. They go to the balcony to see another car sitting on top of his girlfriends car! He had arrived there about 10min before this happened.

What happened is a woman around the age of 35 was getting in her car to leave. She was in the parking lot to the left of the snowbank. Started the car and began to pull out in drive. (This is where it gets strange) She said she thought she ran over her mother and went to stomp on the break but hit the gas and froze in panic.

Her mother was never there, just her and when her husband arrives he said she's been having some problems. Why they let her drive is beyond me but i'm glad no one was hurt as this could of been alot worse.


The car went about 15 feet through the air!

would you classify that as being double parked?

,I cannot ride with my wife driving, Not that she's a bad driver, she actually drives good and is always very aware and cautious of her surroundings,
its just that I always have to say something to her about here using her left foot to brake, insted of switching from gas to brake with her right foot, usually she'll pull over and have me take the wheel ...... But really my point to her is something like this accident could happen if ever being confused about braking? atleast I think it would confuse me!
By the way my wife said she uses her left foot to brake with because she used to always drive stick shift and always had her left foot doing something,
I told her that her left foot should only be for a clutch and suppose to use her right foot to switch back-n-forth between gas and brake, this is when she pulls over again and has me take the wheel...... for some reason I just cannot refrain myself from saying something to her when she speeds up on the rear of another car

 

[hitekcountry]

using her left foot to brake, insted of switching from gas to brake with her right foot
I told her that her left foot should only be for a clutch and suppose to use her right foot to switch back-n-forth between gas and brake

Ah, interesting point. I always drive an automatic using my left foot for braking and right for gas. I don't see how that can cause any confusion. I think the problem with the run away cars phenomenon is that the driver uses the right foot for both and at the time of "confusion" the driver is thinking that their foot is still on the brake.

I have no problem switching between stick and automatic.

 

[deepNdirt]

Ah, interesting point. I always drive an automatic using my left foot for braking and right for gas. I don't see how that can cause any confusion. I think the problem with the run away cars phenomenon is that the driver uses the right foot for both and at the time of "confusion" the driver is thinking that their foot is still on the brake.

I have no problem switching between stick and automatic.

yet another good point made, when the right foot is used for both gas and braking I suppose in some circumstances one could get confused.
actually when you first see the need to slow down the first responce is to let up off the gas, and then if need to stop then press the brake, we all know what works best for us,
but for some reason these small right or wrong things have been evaluated by our state patrol and the results put into drivers manuels,
this is just something I remember from back in my youth and studying for drivers exam , you are to use the right foot for gas & braking, their theory was that you have to remove your foot from gas to apply the brake theirfor will not be pressing them both at the same time, But things might have changed since 1974 the state drivers test might allow to use both left and right feet for each pedal,...................
hitekcountry, Let me ask you this----> if when driving a stick car and you come up on a hill and have need to stop, do you?
A- press the clutch in with left foot and try holding brake with left foot?
B- press the clutch with left foot and hold brake with right foot?
C- partly press clutch with left foot and feather the gas with right foot?
D-car floods and stalls out do you let off clutch to press brake with left foot?
E-or press brake with right foot keeping clutch press with left foot and then
try restarting car?

You will be graded on this

 

[hitekcountry]

yet another good point made, when the right foot is used for both gas and braking I suppose in some circumstances one could get confused.
actually when you first see the need to slow down the first responce is to let up off the gas, and then if need to stop then press the brake, we all know what works best for us,
but for some reason these small right or wrong things have been evaluated by our state patrol and the results put into drivers manuels,
this is just something I remember from back in my youth and studying for drivers exam , you are to use the right foot for gas & braking, their theory was that you have to remove your foot from gas to apply the brake theirfor will not be pressing them both at the same time, But things might have changed since 1974 the state drivers test might allow to use both left and right feet for each pedal,...................
hitekcountry, Let me ask you this----> if when driving a stick car and you come up on a hill and have need to stop, do you?
A- press the clutch in with left foot and try holding brake with left foot?
B- press the clutch with left foot and hold brake with right foot?
C- partly press clutch with left foot and feather the gas with right foot?
D-car floods and stalls out do you let off clutch to press brake with left foot?
E-or press brake with right foot keeping clutch press with left foot and then
try restarting car?

You will be graded on this

A- Never tried that
B- Yes SOP for a stick and depending how steep the hill, then heel and toe brake and gas
C- No, little hard on clutches
D- Good grief no I never stall out a stick shift.
E- See D

Of coarse if the imposable were to happen and I had to start on a steep up hill then depending on the car I would use either the E brake or clutch left foot and Heel and toe the brake and gas.

If I'm driving a large truck with a heavy load on a steep down hill I would heal and toe right foot on the break and gas and double clutch the left foot.

Do I get to keep my DL?

 

[Bird]

I told her that her left foot should only be for a clutch and suppose to use her right foot to switch back-n-forth between gas and brake

Well, don't give up, because you're right. It's a very dangerous, but not uncommon, practice to use the left foot on the brake with an automatic transmission. In an emergency, there's a very good chance such a driver will get confused as to which foot to apply pressure with. And even without mental confusion, just think about it for a minute. If you really have to hit the brakes hard, what do you do? I'll tell you what you do. You push on the floor with both feet, so I can practically guarantee that in a real emergency, a driver who uses his/her left foot on the brake will have the accelerator floorboarded, but after the wreck will swear there was something wrong with the brakes. And he, or she, isn't being dishonest, but will actually believe what he's saying.

As for a car taking off unexpectedly, I've only had that happen once myself. In 1991, working in my brother's tire dealership in Anchorage, the guys had just removed the snow tires from an old Pontiac and put the summer tires on. I got it in the car to move it outside, started the engine, put it in reverse, and it went wide open, spinning the rear wheels, and jumped backwards about 10 feet before I could get it shut off and stopped. Fortunately, no one hurt and no damage. The cause? A broken motor mount allowed the engine to raise up when I put it in reverse and the engine rose up (tilted) enough to pull the throttle wide open.