More female drivers mistakenly hit gas pedal: Study

Accidents in which drivers mistakenly hit the gas instead of the brake tend to involve older female drivers in parking lots, a new government study has found.

One of the study's most striking and consistent findings was that nearly two-thirds of drivers who had such accidents were female. When looking at all crashes, the reverse is true - about 60 per cent of drivers involved in crashes are male, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study noted.

A majority of gas pedal accidents occurred in parking lots, parking garages and driveways rather than on roadways - 57 per cent in the North Carolina database and 77 per cent in news reports, the study said.

A panel of driver rehabilitation specialists interviewed by researchers theorized that there may be as many instances of misapplying the gas pedal on roadways, but drivers might have more room to recover on the road than in parking lots, given the proximity of other vehicles and objects.

ORIGINAL SOURCE
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