Driver stopped vehicle in a driveway with minimal slope, shifted the vehicle in park, turned off the vehicle and exited. driver proceeded to rear passenger door to retrieve 1 year old from car seat. after retrieving child from car seat, driver felt rear passenger door pushing into her leg, back and head. vehicle proceeds to roll out of the driveway backward while in park. driver and child escape vehicle's rear passenger side door, which is pushing them along in the vehicle's path toward residential street. vehicle continues rolling in park backward down residential street, through a 3-way stop intersection, up a curb, through a yard and into a bush on a private property. a witness who helped retrieve the vehicle on behalf of the driver noted the vehicle was still in park when he tried to remove it from the bush. no one was severely injured but driver has sustained bruising on leg and severe emotional distress.
The push button on/off switch does not protect against turning the vehicle off if transmission is accidentally left in any position other than 'p'. for example its possible to put the transmission in 'r' and turn the vehicle off. for a busy parent (target demographic of this vehicle), this is very dangerous. if on an incline, the vehicle will start rolling forward or backward (depending on incline/slope and r/d transmission position). there should be a safeguard or a beep/warn system to protect the driver/occupants this happened to me on an inclined driveway when i accidentally left transmission in 'r' and turned vehicle off. i took foot off the break and got out and realized vehicle was rolling backwards.