This accident was tragic enough -- a child killed, 15 others injured. Fifty kids in a KinderCare near Orlando Florida playing in the day care when suddenly a car slammed through the front of the building and continued straight through to the very back. Not the first accident we have recorded at a KinderCare, and there have been a number of high profile cases in the past year at others. The lack of standards and regulations has resulted in a number of very vulnerable sites with exposure to high speed vehicles that have no protective barriers of any kind to protect against these same kinds of accidents. (Great coverage with video and photos courtesy of WNCT 9 news HERE.)
But I want to point out that in addition to this accident in Orlando, there were more than fifty other vehicle incursion accidents into commercial / retail buildings in the United States today. Not all got headlines; 7 people injured at a crash into a McDonalds in Texas, a car ran into a pediatric medical center in New York, a car smashed through the windows of a liquor store in South Carolina, and a drunk driver ran into a gas station in Ohio. And dozens more.
We need to remember that while this crash in Orlando is especially tragic, it is in no way unique. Nobody in America started out their day today thinking "I think I will run into a building when I go out for lunch." Nobody thought to themselves "Maybe today is the day that I will get a broken leg when a car drives into my bank, or my office building, or the waiting room at my dentist's office." It is not how we think. But in the absence of codes and standards requiring protective devices between oncoming cars and storefronts like KinderCare, we will keep getting these reminders.
But it doesn't have to be this way.
But I want to point out that in addition to this accident in Orlando, there were more than fifty other vehicle incursion accidents into commercial / retail buildings in the United States today. Not all got headlines; 7 people injured at a crash into a McDonalds in Texas, a car ran into a pediatric medical center in New York, a car smashed through the windows of a liquor store in South Carolina, and a drunk driver ran into a gas station in Ohio. And dozens more.
We need to remember that while this crash in Orlando is especially tragic, it is in no way unique. Nobody in America started out their day today thinking "I think I will run into a building when I go out for lunch." Nobody thought to themselves "Maybe today is the day that I will get a broken leg when a car drives into my bank, or my office building, or the waiting room at my dentist's office." It is not how we think. But in the absence of codes and standards requiring protective devices between oncoming cars and storefronts like KinderCare, we will keep getting these reminders.
But it doesn't have to be this way.
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