April 15, 2005 Fla. test drive totals new car, hurts husband 81-year-old woman loses control of 2005 Accord By SARAH LUNDY The News-Press of Fort Myers
FORT MYERS, Fla. - When Dorothy Stump got behind the wheel to give a new Honda Accord a test drive, she stepped on the pedal - the wrong pedal.
It jerked backward.
Before it stopped, the 81-year-old woman had knocked down her husband, struck a salesman, smashed into a parked car, and clipped a tree before finally crashing into a wall Wednesday.
I'm not LBMHBThere, I said it. Just because I generally drive the speed limit doesn't mean me and LBMHB are one in the same, or that I am a weanie who wouldn't...
"She must of panicked," said Joe Sica, sales manager at Honda of Fort Myers.
Dorothy's husband, Robert Byrum, 88, of Fort Myers was hit by the car's open door, according to a Lee County sheriff's report.
How Much Driving Experience 4185Yeah, that makes it pile up, don't it? Thats the situation with my servicing 2-way radios. Some of that mileage was in the worst conditions - it'd...
Then, the door hit salesman Christopher Hopper, 23, who was standing about 20 feet behind the vehicle.
I'm not LBMHBOn Sat, 16 Apr 2005 05:22:43 -0400, Magnulus Now I am impressed. NOT. At the last tally I have half a million miles, give or take, in 200+ different types of cars...
It kept going - hitting a parked Honda Civic, a tree and then a wall.
"Fortunately, the air bag went off," Sica said, adding the driver was not injured.
Byrum and Hopper were taken to a local hospital where Byrum was admitted and was in good condition Thursday afternoon.
Hopper, who was hired about two months ago, was treated and released Wednesday but will be out of work for about a week, Sica said.
As for the Accord, it's totaled. "You never anticipate something like this happening," Sica said.
The couple will have to return to the dealership. Their trade-in, a Chevrolet, is still there.
