Teenage Learner Driver Kills Father, Friend And Herself After Mistaking Accelerator For Brake
A teenage learner driver killed herself, her father and a friend after accidentally stepping on the car’s accelerator instead of brake, plunging it into a canal.
The car plummeted more than 10 feet before landing upside down in the water.
Villagers who witnessed the accident jumped into the canal and helped turn the car onto its side, allowing rescuers to smash two windows to free the victims.
Rescue - villagers turned the car over to try to rescue the people inside (Pictures: CEN)
All four people in the car, who also included the driver’s sister, are thought to have been knocked unconscious by the impact.
They were pulled from the submerged vehicle but the 19-year-old driver, known only as Wu, her 51-year-old father, and her friend, 17, were pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics after unsuccessful attempts to revive them.
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Her sister was rushed to a local hospital and is said to be in a coma.
Reports said Wu, who was reportedly driving her father’s car in the township of Dongfeng, in Zhongshan City in South China’s Guangdong Province, only had a learner’s licence and still needed to be accompanied by an adult.
Unconscious - The four people inside were knocked out by the impact
But after she started the engine, she reportedly stepped on the accelerator pedal, thinking it was the brake and causing the black sedan to surge down an embankment into the canal.
More than a dozen villagers used ropes to pull the car on the side and try to rescue the people inside.
Tragic - the driver, her father, and a friend all died in the crash
