Lexusfreak

Ouch!

Ft. Myers Florida (AP) -- An 81-year-old woman preparing to take a test drive at a car dealership hit her husband, a salesman, a car and a tree before running into a wall.

"She must have panicked," said Joe Sica, sales manager at Honda of Fort Myers.

The new Honda Accord shot backward after Dorothy Byrum got behind the wheel and apparently stepped on the wrong pedal Wednesday.

The open car door hit her 88-year-old husband, Robert, and the salesman. Then the car struck the parked car, the tree and the wall. The air bag deployed, and Byrum was not injured.

Her husband was knocked down but was in good condition the following day. The salesman was released after treatment and is expected to be out of work for about a week, Sica said.

The car was written off.

KneeShoe00

w w

- Nizhu

<VENOM>

easiest sale that guy probably ever made

Lexusfreak

Yeah, probably signed the deal from his hospital bed.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

hahahhahaa, damn i can't stop laughing, this is some good stuff....

i guess the honda accord is really damn hard to drive

GS300Rich

These people are all over the roads down here Sometimes its like bumper cars when they get beside each other.

rheiy

Scary knowing that there are people like that driving on our roads

mmarshall

This is F - - -ing NONSENSE. I'd like to know who the hell wrote this story.

Since WHEN is a car's direction of movement determined by what pedal a person steps on? There is only ONE thing that will make a vehicle accelerate in reverse (assuming it is not coasting down a hill in neutral backwards). The transmission HAS to be in reverse gearing.....either intentionally, inadvertantly, or through a defective shift gate or linkage.
With a properly working transmission....( and you can bet the monthly rent that a brand-new Honda right out of the factory is NOT going to have a defective transmission )...there is NO WAY that pressing on the "wrong pedal" is going to make a car do that.

.......I have seen a LOT of automotive nonsense get printed in my days, but THIS one takes the cake.

NeverSatisfied

how's that??

mmarshall

Flip can correct us if we're wrong, but I think " written off " is insurance jargon for " totalled " meaning that the estimated damage to a car will cost more to repair than the car's market value at that point. It usually means one of two things...the car is either junked or donated for tax purposes to an charity that will junk it. In this case, the woman's insurance would give the dealership a check for the value of the totalled car. How that value is figured exactly....whether it is list price, wholesale, "adjusted market value " I don't know....maybe flip does.
Even if a damaged car IS repaired at the dealership the dealership still suffers a loss because it can no longer sell the car as an original undamaged new car...it has been in an accident and even the warranty may no longer apply.

" Writing off " in buisness can also mean deducting something on your tax return as a buisness expense or loss. The dealership, instead of collecting from the woman's insurance company, can choose instead to write off the car's value as a buisness loss and a tax deduction.

chuckb

like rich said, the old fart drivers here are HORRIBLE. I am not surprised one bit.

Mmarshall-she probably had it in R and then hit the wrong(gas) pedal.

on a side note-I think we are also the door ding capital of the world. If that's how these people drive(and it is), think how much finesse they use when opening a car door(none). they just push the door open as hard as they can and it bounces off the car next to them. it's pathetic

Celsior Master

yeah old drivers are horrible. that's why i have a big hole in my wald bumper

and a lot of people will ding your door on purpose when you have a car like a lexus.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

No, no, you've misunderstood. When they say she was on the wrong pedal what they mean was she was already in reverse but hit the GAS instead of the BRAKES shooting backward instead of being prepared (braked) ready to move.

got_trd

There is some crazy people in Florida these days

mmarshall

You might be right, bit....but the writer should have said that. Maybe I jumped to the wrong conclusion too quickly....something I don't usually do.

I don't know what is more dangerous behind the wheel.....old senile people who no longer know what they are doing or gung-ho teenagers drinking and drag-racing. They both can do a lot of damage.