It sounds to me like a young driver making a mistake -and it's good it was a pylon. Doesn't sound any stupider, or funnier thant about 100 mistakes I made in my first few years of driving. Most were harmless and I never hurt anyone, but believe me, there were some errors in judgement.

I'm in the midst of teaching the second of two kids to drive. Kids, or any driver for that matter, just screw up. They are inexperienced and make mistakes.

Sounds like she misjudged the situation, and probably wont' do it again. It's always good when learning experiences are relatively harmless.