Wheel Stops Didn't Help this 7-Eleven Store

Photo: WAVY.com

First off, Happy New Year! Second off, this post is not meant to beat up on 7-Eleven. Really. But for pete's sake...we're only two days into 2013 and already here's another reminder of 'The Wheel Stop Follies'.

This 7-Eleven in Chesapeake, Virginia, got nailed this morning by a driver who put her SUV in drive instead of reverse (see WAVY News).

Is the driver to blame? Yes! But this kind of mistake is so common, no business with nose-in parking spaces can think it's immune from such accidents — especially not one with as many stores and as many storefront crashes under its belt as this one.

Moreover, no 'nose-in' parking space should have only a shallow bumper stop between it and the storefront. While the proverbial picture is worth a thousand words, this one is worth just seven: "Wheel stops don't 'stop' a moving vehicle."

When this driver put her SUV in 'drive' and crashed forward through the window, who knows if she had even pressed the accelerator yet before the vehicle moved forward. Either way, there was nothing there to stop her vehicle from quickly causing damage to the store. Luckily, no one was injured in this one.

WAVY reported that, "The 7-Eleven will be closed until further notice and the crash remains under investigation." So, just to summarize: (a) A zillion-dollar company put nothing but wheel stops between its customers' cars and its store. (b) The wheel stops (as usual) didn't prevent a vehicle from crashing into the storefront. (c) Said zillion-dollar company lost revenue from having to close, incurred significant property damage, and was just lucky no one (including its employees) got hurt.

Again, 'not beating up on 7-Eleven. It's just one of many brands putting its property and people at risk by apparently trusting in wheel stops.

Latest Crash Puts Cortlandt NY Deli Out of Business

A recent crash featured in our March 21, 2011, roundup claimed another casualty: the business that was hit.

Peekskill-Cortlandt Patch editor Liz Giegerich reports that the owner of Lou's Corner Deli in Cortlandt, New York—74-year-old Jack Toia—decided to close his doors permanently following the March 17, 2011, crash into his store.

Toia's son, Guy, notes that this crash was the fifth time the deli had been hit by a vehicle—and apparently the second time in recent years when the damage was severe enough that the Town of Cortlandt required the building to be closed until structural repairs were made.

Giegerich's story includes an important take-away for prevention-minded businesses on bollard placement: "The parking spaces also had about 4-foot high concrete posts in the center of each spot, but [the driver in the latest crash] managed to drive between the posts, which were more than a car's-width apart."

Ouch.

I hope to connect with Mr. Toia in the near future to see what advice he might be up for sharing with other businesses based on his multiple-crash experience.

Thanks to Giegerich, too, for her reporting. (Full story link: http://peekskill.patch.com/articles/car-crash-into-lous-corner-store-closes-it-for-good)