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.