Human Factors in Sudden Acceleration Incidents

Numerous governmental studies have established that the primary cause of nearly all sudden acceleration incidents is pedal misapplication. Additional scientific work has further examined the role of pedal control, vehicle design, and other various human factors associated with incidents of this type. As an extension of previous research, we examined various factors that could contribute to these incidents using recent data from the North Carolina Accident Reporting System. While vehicle class was not predictive of a pedal error that led to a sudden acceleration event, the age of the driver was statistically related to the more significant pedal error types. Specifically, we found that over half of accidents involving older drivers occurred while parking and involved them completely missing the brake. Also, young and elderly women were over-represented for these miss-type pedal errors while parking. These data underscore the role of human factors in understanding causes and factors involved in pedal misapplications and sudden acceleration events