Abstract
Earlier work indicated that pedal misapplications, where the right foot contacts the accelerator instead of the brake that was intended, were mainly limited to the start of a driving cycle and the phenomenon of unintended acceleration. Our present work with the North Carolina Police Accident Report database, however, reveals that pedal misapplications are far more frequent causes of accidents than we had believed. We uncovered 219 accidents in which the driver(s) stated that the foot contacted the accelerator rather than the brake. We categorized these accidents in various ways, leading to an initial understanding of the frequency, the mechanisms, and the traffic conditions surrounding these events. Contrary to our expectations, most of the misapplications were classed as “unhurried,” and about half were caused by the foot slipping off the brake. Pedal errors during the driving cycle may occur much more frequently—and for reasons other than those previously proposed—than during start-up.
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