Howie used to do the q-tip topic a lot—elderly drivers who mistook the gas pedal
for the brake. Now 71 and white haired himself.
My grandfather remarried at 85, and ran over his “new” wife at 89. (When I tell people this, their first response is that their eyes bug out and they have to suppress a laugh-I think perhaps it is because of how I tell it to them with the “...ran over his new wife...” but that is how it happened.
No joke-he had that exact thing, diabetic, couldn’t feel his feet, and they pulled up in front of the house. My dad got out and was helping his stepmother into the house while my grandfather parked the car, and he pressed on the brake, but the car kept going, so he thought he wasn’t pressing down hard enough, so he pressed it more, and the car shot up over the lawn, he lost control, and it ended up pinning his wife against the house (she was, I think, 75 at the time) I recall it was some kind of huge electric blue Chrysler or Buick.
Her leg was crushed and had to be amputated, and my grandfather was devastated. He never drove a car again. She spent the last years of her life in a wheelchair, and was quite bitter about it, and reminded him often of what he had done to her.
It was sad. He was a very nice man, a quiet guy in his old age, and just sat there and took it.