More sudden acceleration
10 hurt when car slams into Starbucks' patio (AP)
An 85-year-old man who drove a car onto a patio at a Starbucks coffee shop and injured 10 people, two of them critically, isn't likely to face charges, police said Saturday.
"It sounds like it's just a simple mistake by an elderly man," said police Sgt. Richard Williams, adding he "seriously doubts" charges will be filed.
Police said Ted Kawashima was trying to park his white Toyota Camry in a handicapped spot at about 9 p.m. Friday when the car surged forward. The vehicle plowed across the patio and back into the parking lot, coming to rest on top of another car in this suburb 14 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.
Kawashima, who speaks only Japanese, told police through a translator that he was trying to step on the brake pedal when he hit the accelerator by mistake.
Doesn't the fool realize that he's supposed to claim "sudden acceleration syndrome" and hire a lawyer?
Driver slams into Starbucks coffee shop (Stephanie Guadian, KTRK-13)
Cleanup is underway at a Houston Starbucks after a driver ran right into the building. Despite the damage, things could have been much worse. The driver suffered minor injuries, while customers got a scare they won't soon forget.
Customer Ali Suleiman was inside the Starbucks. Ironically, he was reading a newspaper article about a similar accident that happened yesterday out west.
Driver creates drivethrough at
West Houston Starbucks!"I was reading that another accident happened in California where a man hit a Starbucks," he said. "I was reading it and then I heard a loud explosion. It sounded like a bomb. It scared me. I looked behind me and half the car was inside the Starbucks."
Paramedics treated the driver at the scene and then took him to a local hospital to be checked out. Amazingly, no one was seriously injured.
"I think he was trying to push the brakes and instead pushed the gas," said Laghnimi. "It is probably just a mistake."
It sounds like a textbook case of Sudden Acceleration Syndrome to me!
Vehicles do accelerate suddenly when drivers jam on the accelerator instead of the brake.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/30/06 23:17 | Other | Technorati
Previous Entry | Home | Next Entry
TrackBack
There are currently no trackbacks for this item.
Incoming trackback pings have been disabled because of abusive spammers. Technorati is now used to track cross-blog conversation.
Comments
No comments yet. Add yours?
Add Comments
While it is not required, creating an account for commenting provides a number of benefits (such as comment editing and bypassing the captcha challenge). You may log in to your account here.
No flames or impolite behavior. Any questions, see the site policies. Older posts are moderated (because of spammers), so if your post does not appear immediately, that could be why.
HTML will be stripped. URLs will be transformed into hyperlinks.
[b]text[/b] will produce bold text. [i]text[/i] will produce italicized text.
Comments for this post must be approved before being published. Thank you!
BLOG
» Create Account
» Log In
DISCLAIMER
Content and design copyright © 1997-2008, Kevin Whited.
Posts represent the views of Kevin Whited (and occasional guest bloggers) only, and do not necessarily reflect the views of employers, family, friends, or significant others.