Stillwater Police: Two Weekend Crashes Involve Senior Citizens Hitting the Gas Instead of the Brake

Stillwater police responded to two crashes last weekend that authorities say were the result of elderly drivers mistakenly hitting the gas pedal instead of the brake.

Both incidents occurred Saturday afternoon. No injures were reported in either incident.

According to the police reports:

Police were called to at about 3:09 p.m. after a 92-year-old Stillwater man "rapidly accelerated" in reverse and hit a pair of trucks and a power pole.

Witnesses told police the man reversed from a parking stall “at a high rate of speed,” crashed into a truck and continued in reverse at “high speeds” until the vehicle spun around, hit a power pole and then a second truck.

The driver told police he “hit the accelerator when he intended to brake," which caused the chain of events. The man’s vehicle was towed from the scene with two broken axels as a result of the crash.

The police report states that it “appears that (the man’s) lack of motor skills caused his vehicle to accelerate out of control.”

Police completed a driver evaluation request form that will be sent into the state.

About an hour later, .

The man told Stillwater police he pulled into a neighboring driveway to turn around after leaving a birthday party Saturday afternoon, when he mistakenly hit the gas pedal instead of the brake. In turn, the man crashed his vehicle into the front of a house.

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