A RETIRED book-keeper who died after her car hit a tree had probably mistaken the accelerator for the brake.
Angela Wilsher, 79, from Chichester, died on August 15 at Southampton General Hospital from multiple injuries after her automatic car hit a tree near the junction of Lavant Road and The Drive, Chichester, on August 9.
A Worthing inquest heard her car had accelerated down the wrong side of the road moments after she had got inside the vehicle.
PC Paul Banks said: ‘People will sometimes accelerate and press the wrong pedal.
‘Because they’re accelerating, they’ll sometimes press it harder thinking it’s the brake and will slow them down. It usually takes a few seconds to realise a mistake has been made, and in that time she had already travelled to Lavant Road and collided with a tree.’
The verdict was accident.