"Pedal Error" Not A Minor Mistake

Bob Carroll

Contributor

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Pedal error sounds so minor and innocent that it seems hard to punish someone who experienced it. That is, until you realize it probably killed 10 people in California.

Lawyer: Deadly farmers market crash was case of 'pedal error'

LOS ANGELES - Witnesses told police they heard the engine of George Russell Weller's car revving as he sped through the crowded Santa Monica Farmers Market, running down everyone and everything in his path.
Weller killed 10 people and injured more than 60 others while careening 300 yards at speeds up to 60 mph. His 1992 Buick LeSabre finally hit a ditch and was dragged to a stop by a body lodged underneath.

Lawyer Mark Borenstein, who is representing Weller at his manslaughter trial, said during opening statements the carnage was caused when the old man panicked and confused the accelerator with the brake in a phenomenon known as pedal error.

The phenomenon is so rare that the California Highway Patrol doesn't track pedal error incidents, agency spokesman Tom Marshall said.

The California Highway Patrol and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration both found Weller's incident to be an example of pedal error. But CHP investigator Richard Wong has testified it was not the cause.

Pedal error and other types of unintended acceleration have been rare since automakers redesigned cars in the early 1990s to address the problem.

A greater distance between the brake and accelerator made it harder to confuse the two pedals. Another change required drivers to step on the brake before shifting gears.

The changes came after the federal government found that pedal error instead of widely reported mechanical failures were responsible for a number of collisions in the 1980s involving the popular Audi 5000.

Drivers had complained the cars lurched forward, even when their foot was on the brake. But the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found most people had inadvertently been pushing the accelerator.