88-year-old Ralph Soriero Posted: August 17, 2015
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (WSVN) --
A South Florida driver is thankful no one got hurt after, he said, he accidentally stepped on the gas and crashed into a store in Fort Lauderdale, Monday afternoon.
The crash occurred at the Batteries Plus Bulbs store at 1551 E. Commercial Blvd., sometime before 2 p.m. "It sounded like a grenade went off," said store clerk Mike Edwards.
Edwards was behind the counter when driver Ralph Soriero's Nissan Sentra came barreling through the front window. "All I saw was glass and bulbs coming at me," said Edwards.
"My foot evidently slipped off the brake and hit the gas pedal," said Soriero. "It was too late then."
Soriero said he managed to engage the emergency brake before anything more serious happened. "You see a car coming through. I'm glad it stopped, obviously," Edwards said.
The 88-year-old driver suffered minor injuries but refused to be transported by paramedics. Instead, he was concerned for those inside the store. "That's the first accident I've ever had since I was 17 years old," Soriero said. "I thought someone was going to get hurt that was inside the store. Luckily, nobody got hurt."
"I thank God that he's fine," said store manager Vickie Carleton. "That's the biggest thing, he's fine, and we're all fine."
Although nobody was hurt, Soriero said he feels a bit embarrassed. "It hurts my pride, you know, after being a careful driver all my life," he said. "I feel sorry for the batteries place. I feel sorry I couldn't get a battery for my clicker, too."
Employees spent the rest of the day cleaning up the mess. According to Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue, the car stopper in the parking spot helped prevent Soriero from going further into the store.
Soriero will turn 89 years old in October, but in all his years of driving, he said that he's only received three parking tickets. After Monday's incident, he will have to add another citation to those previous tickets.
Elderly drivers cause many accidents. We need to force
drivers to take driving refresher courses every 5 years or more often.
Drivers must also be tested for eye-sight, hearing, drugs, etc. Many thousands
of deaths and hundreds of thousands of injuries would be prevented if we do
so. Please remember that a vehicle is a lethal weapon and only a
regularly-trained, capable and fit person should operate it.