An exercise class at the gym might be the last place you would expect to be the victim of a car accident, but that is what happened at a Bay Area health club. Sadly, a woman died in the incident, and five others were injured, KPIX-TV reports.
The driver in the crash is an 80-year-old woman who was attempting to park her SUV in the parking lot of a Livermore health club. Police believe the woman mixed up her brake and gas pedal. She stepped on the gas and the SUV accelerated forward, crashing through the gym’s glass doors.
Inside, an elastic strap resistance class was in progress. The SUV drove through the class, fatally injuring a 49-year-old woman. Police later said the injuries to the other five victims were not life-threatening. The driver was not arrested as of Sept. 22, and police did not suspect that drugs or alcohol were involved.
In the last two years the Walkup firm has handled two major cases where elderly drivers jumped the sidewalk and injured people. Two years ago Mike Kelly and Valerie Rose represented three brothers badly injured in Mountain View when a car ran into a Walgreens store. More recently, Mike and Justin Chou are representing a young man with catastrophic injuries struck while seated and eating lunch at a sidewalk café in Palo Alto.
As people age, their ability to safely handle a car can become compromised.
