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iamdan1 t1_ix9h705 wrote

Reply to comment by myleftone in Car crashes into Apple Store in Hingham, trapping multiple people inside by B1Baker

I wouldn't agree that a deliberate turn was needed. Based on the Streetview of the mall, the driver might have passed the Barnes and Noble, and turned left to go past the Apple Store (since that seems like the flow of traffic in that plaza). Could have been an elderly person that got startled by something, like a pedestrian, and hit the gas instead of the brake and gone straight over the curb in the store, and kept hitting the gas because they were confused. And since the car was described as a large SUV, it probably jumped the curb with no problem.

Obviously we are just guessing, but I would suspect age instead of something malicious.

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stomach t1_ix9mw70 wrote

am i dreaming, or do i feel like a lot of times when it's an older person (confused) as you described, a story often ends with 'the crash does not appear to be intentional at this time'

not sure if this is some version of a canary in a coal mine to communicate this fact before police want to make an official statement or if it's just random and i'm imagining any sort of pattern

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iamdan1 t1_ix9po92 wrote

It is still very hypothetical since we have no idea what happened, but official statements try to stick to actual evidence, and with an older person confusing the pedals, there is no real physical evidence of what happened. So they can only say that it did not appear to be intentional because it was not intentional, and the only person that truly knows was the driver, who might not be fully aware of what they were doing at the time (or the shock of it, and humans incredibly fallible memory make true recollection impossible).

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needabiggerhammer t1_ix9wkg1 wrote

Crashes like this that are not intentional could be mostly involving older people. That would cause your brain to latch on to the pattern. And this type of thing, although usually much less severe, tends to be the trigger for "time to take the keys away" conversations that should have happened long before.

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thewumberlog t1_ixbzx3d wrote

Driver is a 52 YO man.

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iamdan1 t1_ixd88xt wrote

Obviously we still don't know the full story, and I do feel there is more to it, but from another article: ""While driving in the area of Barnes and Noble, Mr. Rein stated his right foot became stuck on the accelerator and his vehicle accelerated," State Trooper Andrew Chiachio wrote in a police report. "Mr. Rein stated he used his left foot to try to brake, but was unable to stop the vehicle and crashed through the front of the Apple store.""

The gas pedal on my car got stuck once (I later figured out why and it was really stupid and 100% not the cars fault), and I immediately reacted by braking, shifting into neutral (automatic transmission) and steering the car off the road. I was just accelerating at a green light, so it all happened under 10 mph, but it was scary.

I think we need to make people re-take periodic driving tests/courses to re-educate older drivers. And yes, 50s is older.

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Bethsoda t1_ixdj5ax wrote

This is so sketchy though - he's not saying the pedal got stuck but that his foot got stuck? And why could he steer to avoid the store - at the very least he could've steered towards a solid wall as it would be more likely to just hurt him and not others.

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