American drives 4x4 onto Merc

2012-04-10 10:28

A Suzuki 4x4 driven by an American tourist ended up on top of a Mercedes-Benz at a Pretoria shopping mall. (Beeld)

Hilda Fourie, Beeld

Pretoria - An American woman who presumably thought her borrowed car’s accelerator pedal was the brake pedal sped off through a Pretoria mall’s parking area, landing on top of Mercedes-Benz.

Pictures of the black Suzuki Vitara on top of the gold Mercedes-Benz bonnet have been circulating on the internet over the past two weeks after the incident at the parking area of the Cornwall View shopping centre in eastern Pretoria.

Gerard Zackey, manager of Liquor City in this centre, said he was busy in his shop at about 16:30 on the afternoon of 30 March when he heard a loud bang.

He went outside to see the Suzuki on the Mercedes-Benz and an upset American woman.

Disorientated

“When I saw the two vehicles, I didn’t think something like this was possible, but when the woman explained it to me, it started to make sense,” said Zackey.

He said the woman had come to visit her sister in Pretoria.

She had borrowed her sister’s car that afternoon to drive to the shopping centre.

The woman, who was used to a left-hand steering wheel, presumably became disorientated in her sister’s car.

“She drove into the parking area. When she wanted to stop, she stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake pedal,” said Zackey.

“She drove over a wall, pushed a lamppost out of the ground and landed on top of the Mercedes-Benz, which was in a parking space.

“She drove a 4x4 so she managed to get over the wall quite easily.”

Zackey said when the driver of the Mercedes-Benz got to the scene, she was shocked to see what had happened to her car.

But she didn’t make a big fuss after the American women explained to her what had happened.

Tow trucks removed the two cars from the parking area about three hours later.
 

- Beeld