“She was applying the brakes. Why wouldn’t the car stop?”
Some people ride and brake with their left foot. It is an extremely dangerous bad habit.
In a panic braking they push both the brake and the accelerator. The accelerator wins.
I remember seeing something in Car and Driver back when there was all that nonsense about Audis running away. The C/D staff took several different cars and measured stopping distances both in normal braking and with the car’s accelerator floored. Full throttle added about 10% to the stopping distance in every car tested.