Another car crashes into another grocery store......and once again, another grocery store with no protective barriers sacrifices pedestrians and customer and employees who might be grabbing a shopping cart or entering or exiting through one of the doors. In this accident in Brick Township in New Jersey, two pedestrians were injured when a vehicle driven by an 88 year-old lost control while coming down the drive aisle car aimed directly at the store. The photo above shows the result -- except for the two injured pedestrians, who were transported to hospitals, one by medevac flight. Photo and great coverage from Shorebeat.com HERE
Now you may say that this was a fluke accident, except that the Storefront Safety Council has documented hundreds of such crashes and has raised awareness of the risks to the public that the grocery industry (and the property owners who build and own these buildings and centers) have for the most part simply tolerated.
In addition, this accident was not a fluke at all -- a quick review of the photo below (thanks Google Earth!) clearly shows that any vehicle driving in the parking lot to park in any of the spaces in this particular drive aisle is aimed directly at the ShopRite store. ShopRite should know better -- after all, they have been defendants in a number of cases like this one over the years. You would think taking action to improve safety would be much cheaper than paying out injury claims over and over again....
Now you may say that this was a fluke accident, except that the Storefront Safety Council has documented hundreds of such crashes and has raised awareness of the risks to the public that the grocery industry (and the property owners who build and own these buildings and centers) have for the most part simply tolerated.
In addition, this accident was not a fluke at all -- a quick review of the photo below (thanks Google Earth!) clearly shows that any vehicle driving in the parking lot to park in any of the spaces in this particular drive aisle is aimed directly at the ShopRite store. ShopRite should know better -- after all, they have been defendants in a number of cases like this one over the years. You would think taking action to improve safety would be much cheaper than paying out injury claims over and over again....
So three weeks after the last blog post about the grocery industry being ON NOTICE, here is another one -- because these accidents just keep happening and the inaction shows that the industry as a whole has elected to ignore this known hazardous condition to persist. For a link to our previous Grocery Industry blog post (and the post before that one!) you will find it HERE.
There are better designs for parking lots, for traffic flows, for storefront alignments and construction, and for simple and effective barriers. Twenty accidents PER DAY in the convenience store / small market portion of the grocery industry alone. Hundreds more per year throughout the rest of the industry.
Oh -- I had said there were TWO crashes. Same day, same result. Different circumstances. But this accident was in a location where security camera video was available. The video will show you what the previous story did not -- it sucks to be inside a store when a driver crashes through the front door. Story and video HERE
As we always note -- it doesn't have to be this way.
There are better designs for parking lots, for traffic flows, for storefront alignments and construction, and for simple and effective barriers. Twenty accidents PER DAY in the convenience store / small market portion of the grocery industry alone. Hundreds more per year throughout the rest of the industry.
Oh -- I had said there were TWO crashes. Same day, same result. Different circumstances. But this accident was in a location where security camera video was available. The video will show you what the previous story did not -- it sucks to be inside a store when a driver crashes through the front door. Story and video HERE
As we always note -- it doesn't have to be this way.
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