ORIGINAL: CORVETTE LADY

Hi TopSpeed: You are exactly right. You have to go with that instant reflex. If you sit there and scratch your head and say "what do I do" , it could be over in a moment. I was looking for a parking space in the mall, and honestly some people never even look when they start backing out, I was behind the car and they started plowing backward. This is one time I floored my vette. He would have hit me in an instant. I was so shaken after the episode. He came up beside me and said "sorry, I wasn't looking, that was very apparant. I have seen where people hit the accelerator instead of the brake, and I have thought, that's crazy, WHO would do such a thing. That statement came back to bite me, the 61 vette lost brakes as I was leaving my office several years back. When I backed out of my parking space, it would not stop moving, in the excitement I was hitting the accelerator, anything to get the car stopped, the last thing I saw was a tree coming toward me , and finally the idea of the emergency brake came to mind. You just never know in that split second what is going to happen. I remember when it happened, hubby ask, why didn't you try the emergency brake. All I had in my head was just trying to get that car stopped, and yes, that was why I was hitting the accelerator.

ORIGINAL: Lee Willis

This important thing is it worked out and you know you can depend on your reflexes and intuition.

ORIGINAL: 94blackC4

I have done the same thing before Scotty, except i almost got run over by an F-350 hauling a VERY LARGE trailer... I did the same thing as you did and hit the gas. Although Lee Willis is correct; it is faster to brake than it is to accelerate; it is also faster to go with your natural reflexes than it is to think about what you have to do to get out of a situation. I was probably in the drivers blind spot and so far up that if i wouldnt have accelerated in my situation, i dont even know if i would have been able to brake in time because i hit the gas just in time to get far enough for his passenger to see that there was a car there and he swerved back over. If i would have hit the brakes, his back end wouldve clipped my front end and i wouldve been pushed over to the side of a road here that is almost completely lined with powerpoles and i wouldve more than likely hit one going about 45mph. Just a thought though... I am glad everything turned out all right for you. I think the Big Man upstairs may have been watching out for the both of us!