Man Crashes Car Into Swimming Pool After Getting Flip Flop Stuck Under Gas Pedal

An elderly man from California narrowly escaped death on Saturday after his flip-flop got caught under the gas pedal of his car — and he crashed it into a swimming pool!

The 85-year-old man, whose name has not yet been released, told emergency officials in Los Angeles County that his flip-flop got caught on one of the vehicle’s pedals, causing him to drive through a wall in his garage and into the backyard of his Altadena, California, home.

L.A. County Fire Department Capt. Jeffrey Sims told KCAL-TV: “He told us that his shoe or sandal got caught in the pedals of the vehicle and (he) drove through the door in the rear part of his garage and into his swimming pool,”

Fortunately, no one was in the swimming pool at the time of the crash, and the driver was able to climb out of the car by the time the emergency services arrived. The white sedan was totally submerged in the accident and, by all accounts, he was very lucky to come out of the pool unscathed.

This isn’t the first incident of someone accidentally crashing their vehicle into a swimming pool.

Back in 2012, a La Puente resident was arrested after he crashed his Lexus through a cinder block wall into a swimming pool in the back yard of a family home.

Janelle Diaz, the family’s 16-year-old daughter, told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune: “We woke up to an awful noise and looked outside, and a car was in the pool. We had always joked around about it — that someone was going to end up in the pool — because they’ve hit our wall before.”

Also in 2012, a 60-year-old Massachusetts man crashed his RV through a fence and into his neighbor’s swimming pool. In that case the driver apparently suffered from health problems.