Wrong way
London, ON, July 2009
Allow me to introduce you to the local branch of the TD Canada Trust bank. This is normally where its windowed (shameless Thematic link here) entryway would be. Except on this day last summer, an elderly driver punched the wrong pedal and punched a car-sized hole in the bank. No word on whether she made a withdrawal once she was fully in the lobby.
These things happen often enough that I'm prompted to ask why. How can drivers be so disconnected from the act of driving that they can't tell the difference between the brake pedal - higher, closer, wider, completely different feel - and the gas pedal? Who actually PRESSES the gas pedal when inching into or out of a parking spot, anyway? Ever heard of riding the brake and letting the car kinda creep on its own?
I guess we're surrounded by driver-morons. Just the kind of folks who blame the car instead of their own ineptitude. Some things never change. Better not sit by the window next time you head out to dinner at a restaurant. You just never know...
Your turn: Do you get scared in parking lots?
* Note to manual transmission drivers: I know your cars don't actually creep. But you're typically more involved in the act of driving by virtue of your three-pedal-ness than the average sofa-driving slushbox-pusher.
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8 comments:
loath and hate parking places
deeply
mercifully i don't drive so rarely have to go to them
this picture does not sell them to me!
lets just say i'm very aware and careful in them...
The weekly newspaper office where I once worked was in strip mall, and between the building and the parking spots were heavy steel posts deeply set in concrete.
It was a retirement village, and not long before I worked there an elderly woman had plowed into the layout room of the paper while trying to leave a parking spot.
I'm actually glad you mentioned being careful where one sits. I will remember this from now on.
I get really scared just crossing the street...I have pretty much no peripheral vision,bad depth perception and I see only half of what everyone else sees most of the time. I feel like I get across the street by luck sometimes.
There are certain stupid drivers that I will remember forever.For instance the truck driver who went into a parking lot labeled no semis, drove in diagonal line at me as he/she was trying to figure things out, then ran over two medians and almost killed me at the other end of the parking lot...I would have chased after to get license plate but I was scared that third time would be the death of me.
I don't get scared in car parks (as we call them here in the UK), but I do get annoyed that some people seem to be incapable of parking between the lines.
when the microwave becomes a logic puzzle and the remote control controls very little, its time to hang up the car keys. Confusion is ok unless you are in a 4000 lb missile.
We had the same thing happen here in Vancouver. Some folks were sitting in a restaurant next to the window, eating sushi, when a car from the parking lot slammed into them. Let's just say it was their last meal. It's too sad for everyone involved.
Sadly, this seems to happen mostly to older drivers. Which implies that they tend to mash to the floor which ever pedal they hit. Because while it might be a slight mental error to mis-step to the wrong pedal, it takes a lot to jump a curb, or destroy a wall...
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