Welcome, NAIOP Readers!

Photo of Wintergreen Plaza in Rockville, Md.,
by Mark Wright, courtesy of NAIOP.

Thanks to NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, for the opportunity to spotlight the vehicle-into-building crash problem in the spring issue of Development Magazine.

The article by Rob Reiter and me went live online March 20, plus will be in the print edition sent to NAIOP members: How Safe Is Your Parking Lot?

As risk control expert David Natalizia said in the article, “This is an important issue that may have been beneath the radar because of the difficulty in understanding its magnitude and scope.”

And parking design consultant Warren Vander Helm observed, “There is no reason why a design for an average parking area has to include nose-in parking,” which is one of the primary contributing factors in storefront crashes.

Convenience Store News Spotlights Crash Problem

"Thanks" to Convenience Store News for publishing "Is Your Store Prepared for Pedal Error?" this evening on its website. According to the publisher, Convenience Store News is the c-store industry's #1 print & online publication and the "highest-trafficked website in the industry," with 81,700 unique visitors (Aug. 2012).

The article was co-authored by Rob Reiter and me to help generate c-store industry awareness and engagement. The piece uses some of the stats generated by Texas A&M University from its research into the issue this summer. Let us know what you think.

Teen Parking Manual Out from IPI & AAA

Thanks to the International Parking Institute for letting me contribute tips on how to prevent a vehicle-into-building crash for its just-released parking education manual for teen drivers. You'll find 'Avoiding a Pain in the Glass' on page 5 of the PDF manual, which is available for free download at parking.org.

IPI teamed with AAA Mid-Atlantic and the Mid-Atlantic Safety and Education Foundation, affiliated with AAA, to publish the booklet that educates teen drivers about how to park. IPI launched the collaboration because 70 percent of all vehicular crashes involve parking incidents. The How to Park manual is "designed to boost parking maneuvering skills along with insights to encourage greater respect for parking enforcement, and it concludes with a suggestion that high schoolers consider careers in parking! A publicity campaign targeted at teen media and driver education instructors is planned," said IPI.

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.

Farmers Insurance Employee Killed in Office Crash

Photo: Mark Harrison / © The Seattle Times

Tragedy struck in Renton, Wash., last month when an 80-year-old driver crashed her car into a Farmers Insurance office, pinning office manager Kaye Hall. First responders were unable to revive her.

Note the yellow-striped wheel stop (aka 'bumper stop') at the head of the parking space in this Seattle Times photo of the accident scene. As parking design experts have told me in the past, wheel stops don't actually stop or prevent a vehicle from moving forward. While the devices might serve as a guide for cautious drivers slowly inching forward toward the head of the parking space, bumper stops can serve to launch a vehicle up and forward if the driver hasn't come to a full stop.

Note also the nose-in (aka 'front-in') parking configuration. With no effective barriers/bollards between the parking spaces and the building, the people occupying those offices are sitting ducks for another crash of this type.

According to news reports, this accident was under investigation and no charges against the driver were announced ahead of its conclusion.

Sources:

• Seattle Times
• Renton Patch
• Renton Reporter