3 guys I ride with were about to start a group ride, and got hit Sunday. This is the email I got:
“Apparantly, a man was teaching his kid how to drive a stick shift in the park, when he lost control of the vehicle, and instead of hitting the break, he floored the truck.
His Dad grabbed the wheel to correct his stearing, but pointed them directly towards Travis, and company. Travis was hit and stayed on the truck until it struck a tree about 30 yards down the road, throwing Travis off.”
The guy Travis has a broken leg and a cracked vertebrae and had surgery last night. The other guys escaped with only cuts and bruises. Scary stuff.
Sounds pretty irresponsible on the “driving teacher’s” part. Thus far I’ve taught my wife and four of our kids to drive a stick and have made an extreme effort to ensure public safety. If someone enters the area, I make sure the car is stopped until they leave. Do we know of the man is being prosecuted?
That sucks.
There was something in the philly area a bit like that - a dad was teaching his daughter how to drive in a school parking lot, i think. But the same reaction - flooring it instead of slamming on the brakes. Ran over a woman who was hoding her baby… the woman threw her baby to someone else, the car hit the mom and killed her.
The whole thing sucks, the dad (in the car) was despondent. One of the only situations where I wasn’t in lock-em-up-for-good mode.
I don’t understand the flooring it thing but it does seem common.