Close call

I had such a close call this morning. I'm still trembling in my hands a little bit from pulling so hard on the emergency brake.
Last night, rainy and warmish for this time of year, a raccoon took up residence in an opening in the roof between the garage and the house - as it has done may times in the past. I went out about 8 am to have a look which meant setting up an 8 ft stepladder. To do this I had to meve our 11 year old Volvo out of the garage so I'd have enough room to look into the opening from a little dustance in case the animal tried to jump at me.
It was hard to start the car as the battery was weak but I backed it out and decided to drive around the street to recharge it a little. Just as I was turning down one street the accelerator stuck to the floor and the vehicle started hurtling ahead faster. I pressed on the foot brake and pulled on the emergency brake with all my strength but the car wouldn't stop and everytime we hit a slushy section I could hear the tires spinning at high speed. So frightened I had stopped breathing I finally realized that all I had to do was turn the key off. Which I did and the car came to an almost immediate stop. Somehow I got the car back home gingerly, realizing that I could have injured or even killed someone walking in the road. At one point in my confused thinking I thought I would have to crash into a house in order to stop!
Back in my house (my wife was out for her morning walk at the time) I made myself an espresso and thought 'maybe the raccoon was trying to tell me it was useless to try and dislodge it and that I'd better leave well enough alone.' So now I'll just try to live with the noise if it happens. After all, my house stands in the coon's native habitat.