Driving Lesson Ends In Target Storefront Crash

Ocala, FL – While getting driving tips, a Florida woman crashed a vehicle through a Target retail store in Ocala.

Norma Joan Brennan, 79, was getting in some driving practice under the tutelage of her pastor in hopes of getting her driver’s license restored when she confused the gas pedal for the brake and crashed through the storefront. No one was injured.

Brennan had been a licensed driver for nearly 50 years, but had the privilege suspended due to medical reasons, according to CBS News. Brennan did not expound on the details of her medical suspension. She was cited for driving with a suspended or revoked license, and Kevin Holsapple, her pastor, was ticketed for allowing an unlicensed driver to operate his Mercury Grand Marquis.

According to Holsapple, the two were intending to go to the DMV after a little practice and hopefully get the woman’s license renewed before the accident happened. Given no one was injured in the event, perhaps it’s a sign or intervention from a higher power.

Federal safety regulators report women are more likely than men to mistake the gas pedal for the break. Before you guys become smug about that statement, men are more likely, at 57 percent, to be involved in any type of vehicular accident versus 43 percent of women per the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Men are also statically three times more likely to be killed in a car accident.

The NHTSA estimates there are about 15 pedal misapplication crashes per month in the United States, and that the drivers in two-thirds of these types of crashes are women. These incidents are most common in commercial parking lots.

Drivers between 16 to 20 and those 76 or older have the highest probability of a pedal misapplication crash – regulators blaming poor executive functions in both an under-experienced or elderly driver. Inattentiveness and distraction are common contributing factors across all age groups when it comes to an accident.

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