How could a driver mistake the accelerator(gas) with the break? Happens every day. How many air disasters have there been because knobs and dials were mistake

How could a driver mistake the accelerator(gas) with the break? Happens every day. How many air disasters have there been because knobs and dials were mistaken. There's been many revisions on cockpit configuration purely because of this, ranging from placement to varying between knurling and polished surfaces. I'm not forgiving what happened or the seemingly reckless actions.. but if this is an honest summary of the events we need to question if it is sensible for a non-lethal weapon to have the design of a lethal pistol, despite it being ergonomically good.