Just...how?

[Ceir]

I know this subforum doesn't get a lot of traffic these days (pun acknowledged and ignored), but boy did I see probably the most blatant screwup that I've witnessed in...several years today, as I was out and about.

I'm sitting a red light, the oncoming protected left goes green. The SUV in the front of the turn line, without hesitation, backs into the one behind them. No lurch like they mis-shifted or anything, not a gentle doink, a solid CRUNCH that I heard across the intersection. As the thread title says, just...how? How does one accidentally jam it in reverse?

[dbuzman]

Even though there wasn't a lurch, I still suspect they had it in park, went to shift to drive and stopped at reverse instead.

[ReverendBSB]

Possible they had edged out trying to make a left on green and couldnt, then had to reverse back to not block traffic after the light went red. Then they forgot to shift back to drive and when light was green again hit the gas.

[drunkenwildmage]

They could've had a 'dial-a-gear' controller and instead of turning up or down the radio or air/heat they changed the gear from drive to reverse and didn't realize it.