KEY POINTS:
An elderly woman who died after crashing her car in a Havelock North carpark had opened her door so she could see better while reversing.
June Peacock, 79, was thrown from her car after losing control of it in the carpark of the New World supermarket on Tuesday.
She appeared to have become frustrated at attempts to reverse out of the park and accidentally planted her foot on the accelerator rather than the brake, after having opened the door, The Dominion Post reported.
The car initially emerged slowly from the park but then suddenly spun into an arc, clipping a ute and crushing the open door of the car.
Mrs Peacock suffered serious head injuries after being thrown from the car and died later in Hawke's Bay Regional Hospital.
Last year an elderly pedestrian was seriously injured in the same village after being rammed through a shop window when another elderly woman hit the accelerator rather than the brake, sending her car across a footpath.
- NZPA
