Many of the consumer reports we get are hair-raising ... but this one will strike terror into the heart of anyone who's lived on a hill and/or raised children.

Stacey of Garden City, MI, writes:
My three-year-old daughter got into my full size 1997 Dodge conversion van (with the help of my five-year-old son) while it was running and was able to put the vehicle into neutral or drive, without putting her foot on the brake.

The van rolled down the driveway, and went across the street. It hit the curb on the other side, before hitting a metal lightpost, which fell over like a toothpick on to another vehicle. The lightpost bounced off the other vehicle to the ground. My van, because now it was going slightly uphill, pretty much stopped along with the help of my husband.

Please understand that I realize my daughter and son getting into that van was our fault and no one else's. Neither my kids nor anyone else got hurt at all. I have two concerns with what happened:

• 1) I thought that on all vehicles with an automatic transmission you had to put your foot on the brake petal before you could put that vehicle into gear. Now, I know that my daughter did not have her foot on the brake petal when she put that van into gear. My husband and I checked on that after we put the van back in our driveway. We could even do the same thing when the van is not running, so if by chance I leave my doors unlocked, any child who does not know better could go into my van to pretend that he/she is driving (kids like to do this), and put my van into gear.
• My second concern is with the lightpost. My neighborhood is about 40 years old or so. When my van hit the lightpost, it had to be going no more than 5 miles an hour, if that. The van hit the curb before it hit the lightpost, so some of the driveway momentum was slowed down (I know she didn't have her foot on the gas petal, I could see her head in the driver's seat, and her feet would not be able to reach the gas petal). The lightpost went down very easily.