Mellissa Clifton panicked when she accidentally hit the accelerator instead of the brake pedal and bumped into a wooden fence under the nose of a police officer.
That panic prompted her to lead police on a chase through a 50km/h area, leaving a trail of destruction in her wake, the Whanganui District Court heard last week.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Stephen Butler said Clifton "immediately fled the scene" on February 17 when she accidentally accelerated into an intersection, on to a footpath and into a fence. A police officer who saw the incident had pursued as Clifton sped away.
She had hit a patch of gravel as she fled, "causing her to lose control of the vehicle".
Clifton's car had slid into the opposite lane before mounting the kerb and hitting a power pole. Her car had then hit and bounced off a concrete wall, continued sliding along the footpath, and hit another concrete wall, where it had come to a stop.