An elderly driver was transported to the hospital Tuesday afternoon after crashing into a wall at the West Hollywood Trader Joe’s parking lot on WeHo’s eastside. A witness says the driver appeared to hit the gas pedal instead of the brakes.
The crash happened around 2:25 p.m. at the store’s parking lot at 7408 Santa Monica Boulevard. Deputies from the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station responded Code 3 after multiple 911 calls reported a vehicle had struck a wall on the first level of the parking structure.
When deputies arrived, they found the driver a bit dazed and confused with the airbag deployed. The driver was extracted from the car and transported to a local hospital. The driver’s wife, who was a passenger in the vehicle, appeared shaken up but showed no visible injuries at the scene.
Blaring horn adds to chaos
Emergency personnel worked quickly to disengage the vehicle’s horn, which blared continuously after the impact. The non-stop noise added an air of stress to an already tense scene as firefighters and deputies worked to assess what happened and determine if there were any injuries.
Witness describes what they saw
Alex Shopperstein witnessed the crash unfold. He was pulling into the parking lot when he noticed the driver’s awkward navigation through the structure.
Shopperstein told WEHOonline, “I saw this car was trying to drive like through here. And then it was really kind of like, you know, if I would be driving, I would have, you know, kind of took a bigger distance,” he said. “So it was kind of awkward driving, and then all of a sudden, I saw a gentleman hit this wall.”
What happened next looked like a classic case of pedal confusion.
“I think, instead of pushing the [brake], he got, he got scared, and he pushed the gas pedal instead of pushing the brakes,” Shopperstein said. “And that’s what it looked like. It just went directly into the wall in a speeding wave.”
The crash is similar to an incident in December when an elderly woman crashed into a wall at Plummer Park, also appearing to mix up the gas and brake pedals.
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That Shopperstein quote was insane, btw