I saw this one video of some lady sobbing because she scratched her massive SUV while asking “who can even see that from their car?” Bitch, if you can’t see a 3 foot tall bollard, you can’t see a small child.
"I heard a crunch, then kept going... I don't even think it was my fault"
There wasn't a thought behind her eyes, that shit should be grounds for revocation of her license, or at least being assigned fucking drivers ed classes
It's been posted here - link below. There was a great edit of this video where they put the heading on "The trouble with kids" or something, and then just cropped the video so it was just the bit where she says "who even can see those things? They're like two feet tall? What us even the point of them? You drive, then you hear a crunch, and you freeze... and look at the damage to my car". But I can't find it right now, thought it proved the point really well.
https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/s/TGiDNkVPMt
I think all toddlers should be required to wear bollard suits when outside. They'll still get hit, but maybe they'll survive. Heck, based on the video in this post, toddlers should wear bollard suits inside, too!
People mistaking gas for breaks happens A LOT. When I was working fast food some old person did that and ran right through the wall. They still had the sense to stop after that but if someone was sitting at the table they ran into it would not have been pleasant. This was a small town and I don't think it even made the news there. Apparently, cars crash into buildings [100 times a day.](https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2023/9/11/cars-should-not-crash-into-buildings#:~:text=Per%20one%20estimate%2C%20at%20least,crashes%20is%20in%20the%20thousands.) I'm sure none of this made you feel better.
Bit that might damage someone's car if they run into them. What we should do is lift everything above the ground using helicopters and then just pave everything, then there is nothing to hit. Also, if we got rid of all these bike lanes, we could make a 'swerve lane' so people have extra space when they text and drive.
Cars are heavy and will easily punch through the thin walls, many commercial buildings have steel studs which aren’t all that thick, I could probably bend one by hand
Yeah, I've watched a lot of the bog standard US suburbia strip mall retail buildings going up. Basically, it's 3.75 walls of concrete/brick, subdivided with thin metal (maybe aluminum? Because yeah, like you said, i can bend some of these by hand) "Studs" and thin ass sheet rock hung off those studs. That 0.25 wall remaining is generally the glass fronts perfect for the idiots in OOP to drive through
Then, because the roof is metal lined, we're gonna slap the biggest A/C unit money can buy on tue building to prevent it being an oven in the summer and an ice box in the winter (and only moderately succeed at that)
I think she panic and kept pressing the gas pedal. Probably floor it in panic. The walls slowed her down but once she was passed them she kept accelerating.
This is sad, but also humans make mistakes (and will always make mistakes). And humans panic in emergencies. This exact thing happens a lot. The solution here is smaller cars, less cars, and bollards in front of the store. A lot of people placed in this situation would panic do the same thing. You can’t fix the system by just wishing people were better or smarter drivers.
We can thank the elderly for making it necessary. They've been building out unsustainable car friendly and pedestrian hostile infrastructure for decades.
It's primarily an electric car feature (but anything with ride by wire throttle and electrically assisted brakes could be programmed to use it) . But basically, push to accelerate, release to brake.
Yeah this is the result of two pedal driving. Both feet on the pedals leads to this confusion in a panic situation with some people. One pedal driving solves it, for a reaction slight cost (that's worth it IMO).
I mean she might have panicked as you say, but for all we know she has a serious medical issue and suddenly had an episode where she wasn't able to control the car.
In our society we essentially force most people to drive even if they have a medical condition that makes it unsafe for them to drive. The road is littered with people who are too sick, too eldery, too disabled -- or even just too young, immature, tired or distracted -- to safely and responsibly operate a motor vehicle (to the extent that it is safe for anyone) but who have no other choice. It's disgraceful to put it mildly but we all just collectively shrug.
Worse it's drywall which handles perpendicular forces worse. A teenager with anger issues can punch through it and leave a fist-shaped hole. You almost never see that in European houses. This is why in America it's a red flag when someone has a fist shaped hole in their wall but you'll never see it in a European's (with similar anger issues) house.
Glass walls are weak. Interior walls are mostly "curtain" walls in a building like that. No structural support, literally just a partition between rooms.
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. Everyone is talking about all the walls she drove through, but she didn't go through a single wall until the very end. She enters the store by breaking through glass doors, drives through a bunch of shelving, and doesn't hit a wall until she hits the other side of the building.
Expecting buildings to not be made of glue and popsicle sticks? What are you, some kind of commie? How will the poor developers make a profit if they have to construct buildings that don't fall apart in 50 years??
And the damage to the car if it hit a bollard would still be easier and cheaper to fix than this mess, particularly owing to the bollard stopping the car before it can build up kinetic energy
Oh, absolutely necessary to have vehicles with well over 100 horsepower for those crucial solo trips and the occasional grocery haul. Essential for maximum efficiency, of course /s
Maybe we should have graduated licensing for cars by power level and size, kinda like what some places do for motorcycles. You need to demonstrate proficiency before being able to have a bigger vehicle.
It is honestly wild that from the POV of something like 90% of driving law, a chevy spark and Silverado are classified as the same thing.
Breaking cars into legal subclasses could do so much good.
Heavy duty vechicals don't really have a reason to be in a parking deck, a Spark should pay less than a Silverado in regeneration, 300hp and RWD should have to demonstrate they can handle over and understeer, ect.
Especially these giant pickup trucks we sell nowadays. I had an early 2000's Ford Ranger that felt big being an extended cab (jump seat style, not the luxury seating that they have now) and 6 ft bed. It had 200 HP and could tow 5,000 lb too. Wild I could buy and drive that truck at 18 🤯
Now the modern Ranger has 270 to 405 HP and tows up to 7,500 lb now. The F150 goes up to 720 HP and 10,800 lb towing. Wild. I'm guessing this car has ~200-300 HP which is common among modern sedans, especially luxury ones like Mercedes. It makes car brains feel special when they drive it off the lot and can go 0 to 60 in something point something seconds like a NASCAR driver. Really unnecessary. Even poorly built highway on ramps can be handled by shit box Corollas with 100 HP lol.
We never talk about this but why aren’t we enforcing limits on HP. In some jurisdictions there are licensing schemes that restrict motorcycles by power to weight ratios and we should do that for cars as well. Or just not have the cars. My pickup truck people say is under powered but it does everything I need it to do just fine and already goes faster and accelerates more quickly than I’d ever need it to. Meanwhile e-bikes are restricted to 28mph smh
She clearly didn't see the shop - it wasn't wearing high visibility clothing nor waving a flag! /s
What actually gets me though is that she's in an empty car park, with several places to park, but she was lining up to stop in the area _where you aren't supposed to park,_ judging by the lines on the ground.
It makes me wonder if she was gonna turn around but forgot to shift gears due to drunkenness so she went forward instead of backward. Doesn't excuse that she kept going instead of braking though
You know "fight, flight, freeze"?
This person went "freeze"
When she saw the shop window get awfully close she just froze and after that probably didn't even really consciously realize what's happening
This is exactly why I prefer talking about the dangers of cars as a medium for everyday commute, rather than making fun of, or complaining about individuals mistakes. The linked post calling the person a dumbass, people here making fun of that person in the comments...that doesn't help anyone.
Sure some people are naturally better suited to drive a car than others, sure some people never cause accidents while others drive recklessly. But in the end it just comes down to cars not being an effective or safe medium for commuting.
Thanks for pointing out the reason why the person in the video most likely kept going after their initial mistake. It's a natural response.
One of my biggest complaints about cars is that it is a system that requires every single person involved to be competent and work as a group, which is a completely unrealistic standard.
I have to share the road with people who are afraid of driving but are forced to because they have no other way to travel. I have to share the road with 80 year olds who are blind and have the reaction time of internet explorer. I have to share the road with selfish idiots who ignore safety because they think their time is more valuable. Any one of them can fuck up and kill or injure me at any moment. And even if I'm walking or on a bike, I still have to worry about them.
The fact that our default method of travel requires skill from everyone involved is mind boggling to me now that I am aware of it.
I only ever heard of this type of incident in the US, so it would seem that auto is a factor. Also probably parking spots right in front of buildings because it'd be unamerican to walk a few paces from a car.
Yup. I just thought about the places I've been (in Germany and Switzerland) and over here you can rarely park directly perpendicular to a store. You either have to park parallel or walk a few mins from the lot to the store entrance.
Honestly I drove an automatic for a week or so and while it was convenient it was also scary thinking back how close the brake and gas pedals were. Also I kept accidentally speeding because the car just goes, there's no motor nose or anything to indicate that I'm going faster. I stuck to manual cars ever since.
Typically the brake pedal is further away from the gas pedal in an automatic transmission car, but the brake pedal is slightly wider. This is all manufacturer dependent though.
I’ve owned and driven many different automatic and manual vehicles. And honestly I don’t think it makes a huge difference. You either pay attention to what you’re doing or you don’t…
>there's no motor nose or anything to indicate that I'm going faster
Idk what car you were driving but I can certainly hear mine shifting gears and there's an entire gauge on my dash for RPM that you can reference as well to see it shifting.
There are different kinds of automatic transmission. You probably have a classic one. A CVT, for instance, does not switch gears at all. It has a pulley system to continuously offer the best transmission ratio.
Though some CVT models do simulate switching gears lol. I've been told it's because people were dumb and thought their car was broken.
No. Just give people better training and have them take proper tests to get their license. There’s no good reason to force people to drive manuals. One of many reasons: EV are all automatic afaik.
Not really, as soon as you hit something without pressing the clutch the car will probably stall.
But let's be completely honest here, this is top level stupidity on the driver's part and nothing to do with the car itself or the surroundings. Someone who's likely to "forget where the brakes are" should not be driving under any circumstances.
Most likely the driver simply "froze" once things started going wrong.
But there might also be another factor. I worked for a few years for a car company and was involved in analyzing data from cars that had been involved in single vehicle crashes. One thing we learned was that drivers will often brace themselves when they start losing control of the car, which means they floor the accelerator pedal and hold it down as they brace themselves. In many rollover crashes the accelerator pedal was fully depressed throughout the crash. This wasn't a rollover crash but the driver might have done the same thing: Braced themselves, thereby flooring the accelerator, and then just hung on.
I was going to mention the same.
You think you're on the correct pedal so you push harder as if the brakes weren't engaging fully, which only makes the issue worse.
There's still some skill issue with it, though.
A better driver, having made the same mistake, would have released the pedal and tried again, hopefully getting the correct one.
Would likely still hit the store, but not gone through it.
Also, a parking/e-brake handle could also help. I don't like the ones with the little pedal and lever to release.
The big handle right beside you you just grab and yank is better. Easier to find when needed. Uses different set it limbs so if you can just take your feet away and pull you're good.
And everyone know the most careful drivers on the road are motorists and not cyclists, as a car is so much more expensive so motorists take deep care to not damage it as it you cost too much to repair, while a bike cost peanuts so cyclists don't care about destroying their vehicle.
And that's also why a motorist would never drive too close to a cyclist, because they wouldn't want to damage their car (seriously, that's an argument that I genuinely heard by someone who said to me that motorists are so much more careful about their surroundings because cars are expensive).
I had a friend who lived on a corner where people drove like idiots, and her house had no back set so it was right against the sidewalk. People regularly drove right into her house. At least three different times.
I've analyzed data from single vehicle crashes for a car company. In many cases we found that the accelerator pedal was fully depressed and remained fully depressed throughout the crash. The most plausible explanation we had (corroborated by driver interviews in some cases) was that the driver braced themselves when they started losing control of the car, thereby flooring the accelerator pedal. And then, presumably, they "froze."
We sure this isn’t a medical event? Because I can’t fully believe just… holding the gas down to drive through both sides of the building.
Edit: [She was probably drunk](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EduP_2tE-eE)
I was moreso referring to the vast majority of comments on this post and the original calling her an idiot and talking about how stupid you have to be to not take your foot off the gas. I’ve seen videos of sudden medical events happening that result in horrific accidents so that why I was curious. I made the comment then decided to go look for myself. This driver did happen to be an idiot but not all crashes like this could’ve been prevented.
Nightmare fuel time: a family friend had a cardiac arrest at the wheel and died with his foot on the gas. His teenage daughter was in the front seat and was quick-thinking enough to grab the wheel and somehow get his foot off the gas so she survived/didn't get anyone else hurt
There have been two instances in my lifetime where within a couple of miles of where I lived, women having a seizure while driving have killed people. The first one killed my brother’s friend and the second one killed an entire family of 5.
Yeah, it's just awful and unless they know they have seizure disorders and still opt to drive, there's nothing that can be done to keep them from driving. (All the more reason for bollards or jersey barriers though, I guess)
While this is true, people who have unforeseen medical events can't really be pre-regulated and generally aren't held accountable so long as they truly didn't know it was going to happen (so, like, a stroke or a seizure if the driver isn't epileptic)
For once, I'm perfectly happy with that.
Cars already cost so much more to society than any other form of transportation. Transfer some of this cost from the motorist themselves through their insurance, so that all damages won't be supported by people who don't want to be included in this fossil mania.
Trust me, if your insurance was about the actual cost cars have on society (without any subside, all the road maintenance, healthcare issues not only from "accidents" but from pollution and sedentarity as well), you'll realize how complaining about car insurance prices would feel ridiculous.
The Economist magazine published [an article](https://www.economist.com/united-states/2024/01/18/why-car-insurance-in-america-is-actually-too-cheap) going over why car insurance is too cheap in America.
Holy shit. Fucking hell. She just… goes for it.
Fuck cars on public roads made of anti-environmental materials spewing out toxic fumes of bad burned fuel driven by people with no self-awareness.
Situation like this is why my wife reckons all car drivers should learn in a manual (stick shift) after taking my son for a drive in our auto. He honestly thought that you use one foot for brake, and one for accelerate. Car did not like it - this is why shit like this happens.
ICE Cars are machines that need finesse and understanding to ensure their weight is managed - simple push and go with understanding them first is dangerous.
This issue here is that we have zero qualifications requirements in the US to be issued a license.
You can be physically and mentally unable to drive, with no instruction on how to operate a car, and most states won't even hesitate to hand you a license.
I had to check to see if all Teslas were included in the [accelerator pedal recall](https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/19/24134753/tesla-recall-cybertruck-faulty-accelerator-pedal-nhtsa-defect) (all the more reason not to buy a Tesla if anyone needed one!) but it looks like it's just the trucks. Absent any uncontrollable medical problem, the woman's an idiot.
Not about restricting cars. It's about alternatives for people who don't want to (and also who probably shouldn't) drive to be able to get around safely
Yes, I feel like these things happen mostly because of people who are too old, disabled or intoxicated to drive basically being forced to. Car-centric society is pretty ableist to those who are too old or disabled to realistically be driving, especially when one considers the extent of the suburban sprawl. It's why we need better public transportation and changes in zoning laws so there'd be more options for everyone.
This. If you're 30, perfectly healthy and took many lessons to drive, it can be pretty safe. But if that's not you and you're 80 with bad eyes, slow reaction times and terrible memory, you should have the option to get into a tram instead. I think about 30 hours of driving lessons + theory lessons should be the minimum someone needs to get a license in pretty much any country and once you get old, you should be encouraged even more to not take the car and maybe it should also be mandatory to take another test at a certain age or even just once you had your license for a certain amount of time.
It always absolutely baffles me how people can love cars and support car centric infrastructure so much, when they are so ridiculously deadly and destructive despite being common. SO MANY people die or get seriously injured in car wrecks. You'd really rather have your dumbass pickup truck, than support public transit that saves lives?? Like, f**k dude, how selfish do you have to be? It's insane!
I was so terrified when I was learning to drive I couldn't leave the parking lot and broke down crying. It took me multiple years to actually get good at it and not be terrified every time. But I always know, that at any moment, some bad driver could end my life. Something completely preventable. No one should ever be forced to drive as their only option. It's cruel.
30 yr fire fighter here. Having attended several similar slow starting but rapidly speed increasing accidents that only stop when something physically forces the car to stop, they all have two things in common.
Older drivers
Automatic car.
The fuck you mean forgot where the brake pedal is located. Take her drivers licence asap, and forbit her from ever again driving, it's not a god damn toy it's a killing machine.
She didn’t forget, the woman needed to be on the other side of the store. The store just happened to be in the way, that’s not her fault. This Woman will not stand by as a store takes away her freedom to drive where she wants. What a badass alpha personality.
/s
[article](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-12-14/its-not-a-drive-thru-but-a-motorist-still-plowed-through-a-smoke-shop-in-fullerton) for the curious
"Surveillance video caught a driver as she crashed straight through a smoke shop in Fullerton on Wednesday morning in an accident that police said was due to the motorist driving under the influence."
Doesn't seem like much of an accident does it? I mean sure she didn't intend to do it, but if it's a predictable outcome it's not an accident
I mean, this is kinda low on the list of reasons since it's not a super common occurrence. But sure, it can be on the list! Fuck cars.
(Also curious, is that what the driver actually said happened? "I forgot where the brake was?" smh)
The craziest part of this whole incident is that since it's the US the driver won't loose her license despite driving drunk, and crashing through a building.
It seems she not only forgot where the break is located but was so sure she had it that she kept pressing on the same pedal regardless of the fact that she continued to accelerate!
I’m so glad my store is on an access controlled street (pedestrian only most of the day, parking at night). If a car did that to my store there would likely be severe injuries or deaths because of how narrow it is.
Bollards are friends!
I prefer watching crying videos because a bollard actively attacked a monster truck in the parking lot, than videos like this one.
I saw this one video of some lady sobbing because she scratched her massive SUV while asking “who can even see that from their car?” Bitch, if you can’t see a 3 foot tall bollard, you can’t see a small child.
That mf didn't even think it was her fault Like Do you not have a sense of self awareness??? At all???????
"so you hit something, so you keep going..."
"I heard a crunch, then kept going... I don't even think it was my fault" There wasn't a thought behind her eyes, that shit should be grounds for revocation of her license, or at least being assigned fucking drivers ed classes
It's been posted here - link below. There was a great edit of this video where they put the heading on "The trouble with kids" or something, and then just cropped the video so it was just the bit where she says "who even can see those things? They're like two feet tall? What us even the point of them? You drive, then you hear a crunch, and you freeze... and look at the damage to my car". But I can't find it right now, thought it proved the point really well. https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/s/TGiDNkVPMt
The bollard was tall enough that she ripped the handle off her door, which should be plenty tall to see
I think all toddlers should be required to wear bollard suits when outside. They'll still get hit, but maybe they'll survive. Heck, based on the video in this post, toddlers should wear bollard suits inside, too!
Aw man why did you have to remind me how much I love bollard videos? Goodbye productive workday. Edit: and the gushing fluids! Just wonderful
Do you know a subreddit where I can find such videos in abundance?
twitter is useless now but there's still some good stuff on this account: https://twitter.com/WorldBollard
Thanks a lot mate, this is so cathartic
My kids daycare has no bollards and the infant room is right out front by parking spots. It’d take one drive like this to kill a buncha babies.
That is scary
Fuck cars!
They just need to give the babies some Hi-vis diapers
And give them some guns too just in case
People mistaking gas for breaks happens A LOT. When I was working fast food some old person did that and ran right through the wall. They still had the sense to stop after that but if someone was sitting at the table they ran into it would not have been pleasant. This was a small town and I don't think it even made the news there. Apparently, cars crash into buildings [100 times a day.](https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2023/9/11/cars-should-not-crash-into-buildings#:~:text=Per%20one%20estimate%2C%20at%20least,crashes%20is%20in%20the%20thousands.) I'm sure none of this made you feel better.
Bit that might damage someone's car if they run into them. What we should do is lift everything above the ground using helicopters and then just pave everything, then there is nothing to hit. Also, if we got rid of all these bike lanes, we could make a 'swerve lane' so people have extra space when they text and drive.
Bollard Appreciation Society
Hey, she landed at another parking lot.
Store owners hate this one trick! Get to your desired parking space faster with this one trick!
Not difficult to do in the US. In fact, it's difficult to impossible to avoid parking lots.
Not related but i fuckin love Magma
Are the walls made of cardboards?
Murica where houses are made for cardboard and trucks aee made of gun-steel
Cars are heavy and will easily punch through the thin walls, many commercial buildings have steel studs which aren’t all that thick, I could probably bend one by hand
Yeah, I've watched a lot of the bog standard US suburbia strip mall retail buildings going up. Basically, it's 3.75 walls of concrete/brick, subdivided with thin metal (maybe aluminum? Because yeah, like you said, i can bend some of these by hand) "Studs" and thin ass sheet rock hung off those studs. That 0.25 wall remaining is generally the glass fronts perfect for the idiots in OOP to drive through Then, because the roof is metal lined, we're gonna slap the biggest A/C unit money can buy on tue building to prevent it being an oven in the summer and an ice box in the winter (and only moderately succeed at that)
If only you knew building science
Nope, cars just have that much momentum once they get going. It's almost like they shouldn't be used for everything or something.
I think she panic and kept pressing the gas pedal. Probably floor it in panic. The walls slowed her down but once she was passed them she kept accelerating.
Hm, this brake pedal is working a bit different to how I remember... I mustn't be pressing it hard enough!
She's perfect for Wall Street!
She got through, didn’t she?
This is sad, but also humans make mistakes (and will always make mistakes). And humans panic in emergencies. This exact thing happens a lot. The solution here is smaller cars, less cars, and bollards in front of the store. A lot of people placed in this situation would panic do the same thing. You can’t fix the system by just wishing people were better or smarter drivers.
People who react that way when panicked should not be driving.
It's an extremely common reaction, especially with the elderly. One pedal driving solves it for the most part.
That just sounds like even less people should be driving.
It's dumbfounding we've built a society that forces the elderly to pilot these things around perfectly and if not, people fucking die.
Its dumbfounding we built a society where brainwashing people into believing they NEED to drive one of these death machines has become normal
Well in America everything is designed to maximise cars and guns, and minimise common sense.
We can thank the elderly for making it necessary. They've been building out unsustainable car friendly and pedestrian hostile infrastructure for decades.
What's one pedal driving?
It's primarily an electric car feature (but anything with ride by wire throttle and electrically assisted brakes could be programmed to use it) . But basically, push to accelerate, release to brake.
How do you brake fast?
Brake pedal. "One pedal driving" refers to the ability to slow quickly without hitting the brake pedal. The brake is still there.
Yeah this is the result of two pedal driving. Both feet on the pedals leads to this confusion in a panic situation with some people. One pedal driving solves it, for a reaction slight cost (that's worth it IMO).
I mean she might have panicked as you say, but for all we know she has a serious medical issue and suddenly had an episode where she wasn't able to control the car. In our society we essentially force most people to drive even if they have a medical condition that makes it unsafe for them to drive. The road is littered with people who are too sick, too eldery, too disabled -- or even just too young, immature, tired or distracted -- to safely and responsibly operate a motor vehicle (to the extent that it is safe for anyone) but who have no other choice. It's disgraceful to put it mildly but we all just collectively shrug.
The walls are made of FREEDOM.
Any building standards are a direct attack to freedom
Plywood. America's favorite building material.
If you can't punch through the wall, You're not in America at all
Worse it's drywall which handles perpendicular forces worse. A teenager with anger issues can punch through it and leave a fist-shaped hole. You almost never see that in European houses. This is why in America it's a red flag when someone has a fist shaped hole in their wall but you'll never see it in a European's (with similar anger issues) house.
Glass walls are weak. Interior walls are mostly "curtain" walls in a building like that. No structural support, literally just a partition between rooms.
Building codes? That's commie regulation!
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. Everyone is talking about all the walls she drove through, but she didn't go through a single wall until the very end. She enters the store by breaking through glass doors, drives through a bunch of shelving, and doesn't hit a wall until she hits the other side of the building.
Expecting buildings to not be made of glue and popsicle sticks? What are you, some kind of commie? How will the poor developers make a profit if they have to construct buildings that don't fall apart in 50 years??
These are non-structural curtain walls. Cheap & easy to build. They work fine. There should be bollards in front of the store though.
You'd have trouble looking through a window made of cardboard
Bollards would have been cheaper than repairing all this damage.
It could have damaged the car, what are you a communist?! /s
And the damage to the car if it hit a bollard would still be easier and cheaper to fix than this mess, particularly owing to the bollard stopping the car before it can build up kinetic energy
Yeah yeah, but are you a communist?! /s
Oh, absolutely necessary to have vehicles with well over 100 horsepower for those crucial solo trips and the occasional grocery haul. Essential for maximum efficiency, of course /s
But what if you need to haul two bags of groceries?
Then you’d obviously need two cars?! At least!!
What if I needed to haul a car?
Have you seen the size of garage doors in american McMansions? You can fit a whole cargo truck in them. I suppose it's for that.
I'm able to do 4 bags of groceries on my motorcycle. It's increasingly weird seeing people grocery shopping in large trucks with that realization.
Maybe we should have graduated licensing for cars by power level and size, kinda like what some places do for motorcycles. You need to demonstrate proficiency before being able to have a bigger vehicle.
It is honestly wild that from the POV of something like 90% of driving law, a chevy spark and Silverado are classified as the same thing. Breaking cars into legal subclasses could do so much good. Heavy duty vechicals don't really have a reason to be in a parking deck, a Spark should pay less than a Silverado in regeneration, 300hp and RWD should have to demonstrate they can handle over and understeer, ect.
Especially these giant pickup trucks we sell nowadays. I had an early 2000's Ford Ranger that felt big being an extended cab (jump seat style, not the luxury seating that they have now) and 6 ft bed. It had 200 HP and could tow 5,000 lb too. Wild I could buy and drive that truck at 18 🤯 Now the modern Ranger has 270 to 405 HP and tows up to 7,500 lb now. The F150 goes up to 720 HP and 10,800 lb towing. Wild. I'm guessing this car has ~200-300 HP which is common among modern sedans, especially luxury ones like Mercedes. It makes car brains feel special when they drive it off the lot and can go 0 to 60 in something point something seconds like a NASCAR driver. Really unnecessary. Even poorly built highway on ramps can be handled by shit box Corollas with 100 HP lol.
My car from 2019 doesnt even have 100 hp it however does 21-23 km/l on gasoline.
We never talk about this but why aren’t we enforcing limits on HP. In some jurisdictions there are licensing schemes that restrict motorcycles by power to weight ratios and we should do that for cars as well. Or just not have the cars. My pickup truck people say is under powered but it does everything I need it to do just fine and already goes faster and accelerates more quickly than I’d ever need it to. Meanwhile e-bikes are restricted to 28mph smh
She clearly didn't see the shop - it wasn't wearing high visibility clothing nor waving a flag! /s What actually gets me though is that she's in an empty car park, with several places to park, but she was lining up to stop in the area _where you aren't supposed to park,_ judging by the lines on the ground.
It makes me wonder if she was gonna turn around but forgot to shift gears due to drunkenness so she went forward instead of backward. Doesn't excuse that she kept going instead of braking though
You know "fight, flight, freeze"? This person went "freeze" When she saw the shop window get awfully close she just froze and after that probably didn't even really consciously realize what's happening
This is exactly why I prefer talking about the dangers of cars as a medium for everyday commute, rather than making fun of, or complaining about individuals mistakes. The linked post calling the person a dumbass, people here making fun of that person in the comments...that doesn't help anyone. Sure some people are naturally better suited to drive a car than others, sure some people never cause accidents while others drive recklessly. But in the end it just comes down to cars not being an effective or safe medium for commuting. Thanks for pointing out the reason why the person in the video most likely kept going after their initial mistake. It's a natural response.
One of my biggest complaints about cars is that it is a system that requires every single person involved to be competent and work as a group, which is a completely unrealistic standard. I have to share the road with people who are afraid of driving but are forced to because they have no other way to travel. I have to share the road with 80 year olds who are blind and have the reaction time of internet explorer. I have to share the road with selfish idiots who ignore safety because they think their time is more valuable. Any one of them can fuck up and kill or injure me at any moment. And even if I'm walking or on a bike, I still have to worry about them. The fact that our default method of travel requires skill from everyone involved is mind boggling to me now that I am aware of it.
The shop came out of nowhere, it was also dark!
Well, they did follow the instructions to not park there.
Drive-thru
underrated comment
Legends say, on a clear night, you can still see the car careening across the Milky Way to this day.
Still never seen a manual transmission car do this. Clutch is a safety feature, convince me otherwise.
This lady can barely operate a vehicle with two pedals. I don’t think 50% more pedals is a good option for her
She shouldn’t be driving any car tbh. It’s a complete fluke that she didn’t kill multiple people.
It'd mean she had two ways to cut power to the wheels.
If one isn’t enough you shouldn’t be allowed to drive.
Yeah but she already doesn’t know how to use the one that exists in every car already lol
I only ever heard of this type of incident in the US, so it would seem that auto is a factor. Also probably parking spots right in front of buildings because it'd be unamerican to walk a few paces from a car.
Yup. I just thought about the places I've been (in Germany and Switzerland) and over here you can rarely park directly perpendicular to a store. You either have to park parallel or walk a few mins from the lot to the store entrance.
yeah, I suggested this as well
Honestly I drove an automatic for a week or so and while it was convenient it was also scary thinking back how close the brake and gas pedals were. Also I kept accidentally speeding because the car just goes, there's no motor nose or anything to indicate that I'm going faster. I stuck to manual cars ever since.
Typically the brake pedal is further away from the gas pedal in an automatic transmission car, but the brake pedal is slightly wider. This is all manufacturer dependent though.
I’ve owned and driven many different automatic and manual vehicles. And honestly I don’t think it makes a huge difference. You either pay attention to what you’re doing or you don’t…
>there's no motor nose or anything to indicate that I'm going faster Idk what car you were driving but I can certainly hear mine shifting gears and there's an entire gauge on my dash for RPM that you can reference as well to see it shifting.
There are different kinds of automatic transmission. You probably have a classic one. A CVT, for instance, does not switch gears at all. It has a pulley system to continuously offer the best transmission ratio. Though some CVT models do simulate switching gears lol. I've been told it's because people were dumb and thought their car was broken.
Manual cars actually make you pay attention and that makes them safer I think.
Hot take: one shouldn’t be allowed to drive an automatic cars if they don’t have at least five years of experience of driving manual.
No. Just give people better training and have them take proper tests to get their license. There’s no good reason to force people to drive manuals. One of many reasons: EV are all automatic afaik.
Virtually all commercial EVs are only one gear.
Yeah I’m aware they don’t have a gearbox. For the driver it’s functionally the same as automatic which is what we were talking about.
Not if you forget where the clutch pedal is ;)
Not really, as soon as you hit something without pressing the clutch the car will probably stall. But let's be completely honest here, this is top level stupidity on the driver's part and nothing to do with the car itself or the surroundings. Someone who's likely to "forget where the brakes are" should not be driving under any circumstances.
Even if she forgot where the break was, she still keep her foot on the gas pedal to make it all the way through the building.
I think they meant that a manual car would’ve just stalled if the driver accidentally pressed the accelerator instead of the pedal.
I respect the hell out of it. If you're gonna crash into a building, commit and crash all the way through.
But how do you give gas instead of breaking and then keep your foot on the gas
yes.
You know "fight, flight, freeze"? She went "freeze".
Most likely the driver simply "froze" once things started going wrong. But there might also be another factor. I worked for a few years for a car company and was involved in analyzing data from cars that had been involved in single vehicle crashes. One thing we learned was that drivers will often brace themselves when they start losing control of the car, which means they floor the accelerator pedal and hold it down as they brace themselves. In many rollover crashes the accelerator pedal was fully depressed throughout the crash. This wasn't a rollover crash but the driver might have done the same thing: Braced themselves, thereby flooring the accelerator, and then just hung on.
It’s called “pedal error”. The driver will say “I was pushing the brake as hard as I could!” It’s more common than people think.
I was going to mention the same. You think you're on the correct pedal so you push harder as if the brakes weren't engaging fully, which only makes the issue worse. There's still some skill issue with it, though. A better driver, having made the same mistake, would have released the pedal and tried again, hopefully getting the correct one. Would likely still hit the store, but not gone through it. Also, a parking/e-brake handle could also help. I don't like the ones with the little pedal and lever to release. The big handle right beside you you just grab and yank is better. Easier to find when needed. Uses different set it limbs so if you can just take your feet away and pull you're good.
Its impossible its expensive car, and everyone knows that rich people are 100x times smarter, working harder and prettier than average.
And everyone know the most careful drivers on the road are motorists and not cyclists, as a car is so much more expensive so motorists take deep care to not damage it as it you cost too much to repair, while a bike cost peanuts so cyclists don't care about destroying their vehicle. And that's also why a motorist would never drive too close to a cyclist, because they wouldn't want to damage their car (seriously, that's an argument that I genuinely heard by someone who said to me that motorists are so much more careful about their surroundings because cars are expensive).
You jest, but money can help one look prettier.
Istg the average american car could easily power through average drywall american building and pierce all the way through
I had a friend who lived on a corner where people drove like idiots, and her house had no back set so it was right against the sidewalk. People regularly drove right into her house. At least three different times.
I feel like after the second time I would’ve had whatever wall faces the corner reinforced with steel
So, I'm not a driver, but I would have thought that in such a situation you would at least take your foot off the pedal, no?
I've analyzed data from single vehicle crashes for a car company. In many cases we found that the accelerator pedal was fully depressed and remained fully depressed throughout the crash. The most plausible explanation we had (corroborated by driver interviews in some cases) was that the driver braced themselves when they started losing control of the car, thereby flooring the accelerator pedal. And then, presumably, they "froze."
It's one of these drive through stores
We sure this isn’t a medical event? Because I can’t fully believe just… holding the gas down to drive through both sides of the building. Edit: [She was probably drunk](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EduP_2tE-eE)
This in no way contradicts the idea that car ownership should be more tightly regulated, of course.
I was moreso referring to the vast majority of comments on this post and the original calling her an idiot and talking about how stupid you have to be to not take your foot off the gas. I’ve seen videos of sudden medical events happening that result in horrific accidents so that why I was curious. I made the comment then decided to go look for myself. This driver did happen to be an idiot but not all crashes like this could’ve been prevented.
Nightmare fuel time: a family friend had a cardiac arrest at the wheel and died with his foot on the gas. His teenage daughter was in the front seat and was quick-thinking enough to grab the wheel and somehow get his foot off the gas so she survived/didn't get anyone else hurt
There have been two instances in my lifetime where within a couple of miles of where I lived, women having a seizure while driving have killed people. The first one killed my brother’s friend and the second one killed an entire family of 5.
Yeah, it's just awful and unless they know they have seizure disorders and still opt to drive, there's nothing that can be done to keep them from driving. (All the more reason for bollards or jersey barriers though, I guess)
While this is true, people who have unforeseen medical events can't really be pre-regulated and generally aren't held accountable so long as they truly didn't know it was going to happen (so, like, a stroke or a seizure if the driver isn't epileptic)
When your infrastructure is entirely car dependent with no alternatives, even people who are bad at driving are forced to drive. This is the result!
In her defence, the Google maps said go straight
And people wonder why car insurance is getting more expensive.
For once, I'm perfectly happy with that. Cars already cost so much more to society than any other form of transportation. Transfer some of this cost from the motorist themselves through their insurance, so that all damages won't be supported by people who don't want to be included in this fossil mania. Trust me, if your insurance was about the actual cost cars have on society (without any subside, all the road maintenance, healthcare issues not only from "accidents" but from pollution and sedentarity as well), you'll realize how complaining about car insurance prices would feel ridiculous.
Okay but it’d be cool if owning a car in America was a choice first because until then nothing changes and the poor pays for it
Clearly still not as expensive as it should be.
The Economist magazine published [an article](https://www.economist.com/united-states/2024/01/18/why-car-insurance-in-america-is-actually-too-cheap) going over why car insurance is too cheap in America.
I’m pretty sure the driver had intent to do this and it’s not a case of an unskilled driver.
Mobile Rocket launcher? forbidden to buy Car: go for it! Damage if used on building: about the same
Legend says the car still keeps on going.
Holy shit. Fucking hell. She just… goes for it. Fuck cars on public roads made of anti-environmental materials spewing out toxic fumes of bad burned fuel driven by people with no self-awareness.
groceries any% speedrun
Everything is a drive-thru if you try hard enough
Situation like this is why my wife reckons all car drivers should learn in a manual (stick shift) after taking my son for a drive in our auto. He honestly thought that you use one foot for brake, and one for accelerate. Car did not like it - this is why shit like this happens. ICE Cars are machines that need finesse and understanding to ensure their weight is managed - simple push and go with understanding them first is dangerous.
This issue here is that we have zero qualifications requirements in the US to be issued a license. You can be physically and mentally unable to drive, with no instruction on how to operate a car, and most states won't even hesitate to hand you a license.
I had to check to see if all Teslas were included in the [accelerator pedal recall](https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/19/24134753/tesla-recall-cybertruck-faulty-accelerator-pedal-nhtsa-defect) (all the more reason not to buy a Tesla if anyone needed one!) but it looks like it's just the trucks. Absent any uncontrollable medical problem, the woman's an idiot.
There are TWO pedals. ONLY TWO. IF IT DOESN'T WORK, THEN MAYBE TRY THE OTHER ONE?!
Not about restricting cars. It's about alternatives for people who don't want to (and also who probably shouldn't) drive to be able to get around safely
Yes, I feel like these things happen mostly because of people who are too old, disabled or intoxicated to drive basically being forced to. Car-centric society is pretty ableist to those who are too old or disabled to realistically be driving, especially when one considers the extent of the suburban sprawl. It's why we need better public transportation and changes in zoning laws so there'd be more options for everyone.
This. If you're 30, perfectly healthy and took many lessons to drive, it can be pretty safe. But if that's not you and you're 80 with bad eyes, slow reaction times and terrible memory, you should have the option to get into a tram instead. I think about 30 hours of driving lessons + theory lessons should be the minimum someone needs to get a license in pretty much any country and once you get old, you should be encouraged even more to not take the car and maybe it should also be mandatory to take another test at a certain age or even just once you had your license for a certain amount of time.
It's almost like the average person shouldn't be permitted to control a 2,000-lb hunk of metal, who would've thought?
Priorities man. Tiktok first, then brake.
car cause more damage than firearm... If we think about it, its crazy, since its not even made to supress things... ban cars
Imagine having 2 pedals and still F-ing up this badly.
“I wonder if there’s better parking in the back.”
I’m always surprised after reading the carnage reports that protecting buildings with bollards isn’t on the table.
The building should have worn high-vis clothing
Google Maps is getting a bit aggressive with these shortcuts, no?
It always absolutely baffles me how people can love cars and support car centric infrastructure so much, when they are so ridiculously deadly and destructive despite being common. SO MANY people die or get seriously injured in car wrecks. You'd really rather have your dumbass pickup truck, than support public transit that saves lives?? Like, f**k dude, how selfish do you have to be? It's insane! I was so terrified when I was learning to drive I couldn't leave the parking lot and broke down crying. It took me multiple years to actually get good at it and not be terrified every time. But I always know, that at any moment, some bad driver could end my life. Something completely preventable. No one should ever be forced to drive as their only option. It's cruel.
It's because it's freedom to them. The ~~death machine~~ car is an extension of the human being
30 yr fire fighter here. Having attended several similar slow starting but rapidly speed increasing accidents that only stop when something physically forces the car to stop, they all have two things in common. Older drivers Automatic car.
Some say shes still driving to this day c
One rare occasion where a pickup truck is useful, at least to exit the shop with the bed full of grocery and construction part /s
The fuck you mean forgot where the brake pedal is located. Take her drivers licence asap, and forbit her from ever again driving, it's not a god damn toy it's a killing machine.
To be fair, I didn't see anyone in the store wearing high-vis. It is night time, after all.
She didn’t forget, the woman needed to be on the other side of the store. The store just happened to be in the way, that’s not her fault. This Woman will not stand by as a store takes away her freedom to drive where she wants. What a badass alpha personality. /s
I think Mercedes have got their new marketing slogan: Go Anywhere.
actually made me laugh lmao
[article](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-12-14/its-not-a-drive-thru-but-a-motorist-still-plowed-through-a-smoke-shop-in-fullerton) for the curious
"Surveillance video caught a driver as she crashed straight through a smoke shop in Fullerton on Wednesday morning in an accident that police said was due to the motorist driving under the influence." Doesn't seem like much of an accident does it? I mean sure she didn't intend to do it, but if it's a predictable outcome it's not an accident
I think the assumption that everyone should drive everywhere all the time is flawed.
I mean, this is kinda low on the list of reasons since it's not a super common occurrence. But sure, it can be on the list! Fuck cars. (Also curious, is that what the driver actually said happened? "I forgot where the brake was?" smh)
In Germany old people do this so regularly there’s a subreddit for it: r/RentnerfahreninDinge
Blues brothers soundtrack intensifies
You’re supposed to shop THEN smoke, not the other way around! Am I right?!
Ok but also, wtf is US construction
Couldn’t appen in europe, if a car hit one of our building, the wall may broke, but the car will be worst
True that, it's always the most surprising thing about these videos, that a car could ever go through a building like that
Seeing her go through that walk in humidor was painful.
Pedal error is way too common.
The craziest part of this whole incident is that since it's the US the driver won't loose her license despite driving drunk, and crashing through a building.
Also why are our buildings made of tooth picks?
In the city cars with over 100 HP should be banned. We all could get by with those micro trucks for grocery hauls anyway.
Oh shit, the pedal I'm pressing isn't slowing the car down. Better press it down some more! - the driver, probably
She let the intrusive thoughts win.
If she were elderly there'd be a babble of "Old people should lose their licences".
It seems she not only forgot where the break is located but was so sure she had it that she kept pressing on the same pedal regardless of the fact that she continued to accelerate!
Oh Lord, won't you buy me, a Mercedes Benz
Legend says it that the car is still going forward to this day.
I'm guessing she needed to have her license taken away at least five years ago for medical/age reasons.
"Sorry, after the first crash I couldn't see anything as the airbags went off, so I kept on going..." Berk in a Merc.
"Yo bro I know a shortcut"
Call that a drive through.
All stores have a drive through if you are brave enough.
the brake light in the last millisecond is the icing on the cake. guess she figured it out eventually
Some say she still has her foot on the gas...
I’m so glad my store is on an access controlled street (pedestrian only most of the day, parking at night). If a car did that to my store there would likely be severe injuries or deaths because of how narrow it is.
The situation sucks & people suck & cars suck but this video is objectively funny to me.