Honestly, between the fact you had to hold the button for three seconds in drive to kill the engine (three seconds is an eternity in a full panic situation by the way) and a poorly laid out shifting mechanism (easy to see how one would think they are in N, but not, especially to someone who doesn't own the car), this is a design that needs to be revisited.
I'm not saying push button starts are bad or that manual shifting on an auto is bad.
An example is commercial aviation. After accidents occur, a thorough investigation occurs and changes to the aircraft are routinely made in response to the problems. The pilots are highly trained, and yet they make mistakes as a result of layouts that also are not fully intuitive as they could be.
Sad situation, but one that clearly has some engineering solutions that can help.
I'm not saying push button starts are bad or that manual shifting on an auto is bad.
An example is commercial aviation. After accidents occur, a thorough investigation occurs and changes to the aircraft are routinely made in response to the problems. The pilots are highly trained, and yet they make mistakes as a result of layouts that also are not fully intuitive as they could be.
Sad situation, but one that clearly has some engineering solutions that can help.