an automatic problem

[sudszy]

A TODDLER was killed and a man seriously injured at Sorrento, 100 kilometres south of Melbourne, last night when a car crashed into the verandah where they were sitting, police said.
A police spokeswoman said a family member had driven her car into the driveway and was trying to park on the front lawn.
Police believe the woman hit the accelerator instead of the brake, crashing into the verandah and striking the man and the two-yearold boy. Paramedics said the boy regained consciousness but they were unable to save him. He died at the scene on Morobe Street.
The man, 63, and also believed to be related to the boy, was pinned between the car and a wall.
Once freed, he was treated by paramedics for serious arm and pelvic injuries and taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
Emergency crews were called about 6pm. Police will prepare a report for the Coroner.

News reports of this happen far too often, brake/accelerator mistakes at low speed and people/ objects in close vicinity(shops/pedestrians/garages/living rooms) with the results that someone is killed before the driver realises that increasing the pressure on what they think is the brake pedal is having exactly the opposite effect. Stats show that this more common in the elderly but not just confined to them, the age of the driver above is not specified.

I can hear the screams of regular license testing etc, but really the problem is one of technique and design, having the stop and go pedals right next to each other controlled by the same foot and the driver not able to see them is hardly best practice in this day and age.

As far as I know this is an auto only problem, it doesnt happen in manuals even with aging drivers as they are well rehearsed in applying the clutch to stop the car stalling when hitting the brakes.

Driver training for autos:, left foot braking a priority?, and perhaps moving the pedal so it can only be reached by the left foot. I can hear the screams of people saying people will drive along burning out their brakes, but modern electronics can cope with that: an undesirable tone if it detects pressure on both pedals or similar when the car is moving above a particular speed