Feetal Mistake? This pun is not only tasteless in the context of this tragic accident, its's irrelevant. The driver fell out of her car, it's an auto so continued reversing without a driver and ran over a jogger. Which foot was being used for braking was not part of the problem. More to the point, HJ should caveat this left foot auto braking advice much more carefully. Here's why: My daughter is learning to drive in a manual. Once she's passed I will advise her to get something like a Yaris 1.3 auto as it suits her needs, if she then switches to left foot braking it will very soon become habitualized. What happens if and when she steps back into a manual a few years later? She'll have no instinct to brake with her right while having to engage the clutch, let alone which foot to use to brake in an emergency. A young driver should not left foot brake until manual cars are so rare as to be irrelevant (which will happen at some point) Older drivers, I agree, can benefit from left foot braking as long as they never drive a manual.
I'd suggest re-reading HJ's comment - he's NOT advocating JUST solely using left foot braking on autos, but when doing slow speed manourvres.
PS. How does one 'fall out of your car' whilst driving responsibly? NEVER open your car doors whilst the car is in gear and without the parking brake on - EVER.
When I drove manuals and autos I used my right foot for check-braking on the open road, which came naturally. When parking an auto, and reversing up a slope, for example, where gravity overcame the creep, increasing engine power with the accelerator and controlling speed by left-foot braking worked very well. The tendency of the left foot to act as if it were operating a clutch, i.e. down quick up slow, stops you lurching backwards or forwards. However, in 45 years of driving, I've never mistaken the accelerator for the brake pedal!
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