OK, official break-down of last night. Examined car in daylight, found grease on the clutch pedal. He must have stepped in some in the garage sometime, and when he got in the car it made his foot slipp on the pedal. When his foot slipped that little bit, the clutch(a 4-puck racing job) grabbed and took off, throwing him off the pedal altogether. Byt the time he could get back on the brake and yank the key, it had already hit the garage.
God, what a mess.
And yes he did have his foot on the brake when he started it. But most people, like my brother, only use enough brake to keep the car from rolling under it'* own weight, which isn't nearly enought to hold the car against even an idling engine.

No new damage to the car, other than some paint swap.
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Notice the mark no the concrete where the door usually comes down? The door is shoved almost 6" back from it! And this is after we pushed it out, to keep animals from getting in the garage. It actually ended up almost a foot back when the car hit it.
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From inside the garage.
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Well, the potentially lucky part about this is that you may be able to just replace the damaged door panels. Go to a real garage door store (we got a couple in the cities, so I know they exist) and get some replacement panels to match. You might need to straighten or replace the track, but that'* still easy and cheap compared to a whole new door....

Actually, the track is just fine! But the door panels are bent all the way from top to bottom.
I think the hardest part, though, is going to be gatting the paint matched. It'* a really odd shade of burnt orange.