Collision is the latest accident involving senior citizen driver
PICO BLVD. — An elderly man crashed his car into an insurance office building on Thursday afternoon, leaving a gaping hole in the wall and four automobiles damaged.
No one was injured. At 4:30 p.m., the 85-year-old driver, who hasn’t been identified, was driving southbound on 14th Street approaching Pico Boulevard. He made a right turn and struck a vehicle in the left-turn lane of eastbound Pico Boulevard. The man also hit two additional vehicles headed eastbound on Pico Boulevard.
The driver then crashed into the offices of Valdez Insurance Agency and Sanchez and Associates Notary Public, located on the north side of the 1300 block of Pico Boulevard.
A man who works in the office had reportedly just left the building two minutes before the car plowed into the building.
The Santa Monica resident, who uses a walking cane, was interviewed by police at the scene and released. The cause of the collision is still under investigation.
The accident is at least the fourth collision involving an elderly driver in Santa Monica since 2003, with the most notable being Russell Weller, then 86, who apparently mistook the gas pedal for the brake pedal and drove through the farmers’ market on Arizona Avenue on July 16, 2003. He killed 10 people and injured dozens more. Weller is currently awaiting trial on involuntary manslaughter charges.
Then a month later, an 86-year-old Santa Monica man smashed his car into a fence that surrounds a home daycare center. The man, whose identity wasn’t released, drove out of the Elks Lodge parking lot off of Pico Boulevard into the alley and plowed straight into an iron gate that blocked the north side of a house. The accident occurred late at night, when the daycare wasn’t in operation.
The driver was cited for a misdemeanor hit-and-run. No one was injured in the accident.
Shortly after that, an elderly woman drove her car onto the Third Street Promenade in the early morning. No one was injured.
And in December of 2004, an 84-year-old man crashed a Dodge Ram pick-up truck through a bustling Fisher Lumber. No one was injured.
The driver, whose identity wasn’t released, apparently hit the gas pedal instead of the brake at about 8:40 a.m. The truck sped through Fisher Lumber about 50 feet before coming to a stop in an aisle.
The owner of the vehicle, the driver’s son-in-law, was inside Fisher Lumber shopping and the elderly man was waiting for him in the passenger side of the truck, which was parked in a space directly in front of the store.
Several employees had told the elderly man that the truck was illegally parked and was blocking the entrance. He apparently attempted to maneuver the truck from the passenger seat, extending his leg to the gas pedal and his arm toward the steering wheel.
The truck plowed through display cases and counters. Debris eventually stopped the truck and the owner pulled his father-in-law out of the vehicle.
For about an hour after the incident, the driver sat next to the store’s entrance. He was questioned by police and let go. He was seen walking away with the aid of a walker.
All of the accidents occurred while a national debate has been stirring about senior citizens’ driving abilities and whether their licenses should be renewed on an annual basis.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 5, 2005. Read the original PDF.