As we continue to collect more data and continue to analyze the information we have collected,  we are able to observe more trends developing on causes of vehicle-into-building crashes and more about the drivers in those crashes.    We have just finished running accident data by driver age and found that our results run much higher than the expected curve for the age of drivers who have storefront crashes.

As the chart below illustrates, we have compared national figures for the age of licensed drivers (stated as a percentage of total licensed drivers) against the reported ages of drivers involved in vehicle-into-building crashes (when driver age is reported.)  What we have found is startling -- just 19% of the licensed drivers are responsible for something like 45% of such storefront crashes.

Those 19% of licensed drivers who are  responsible for 45% of all storefront crashes are drivers over the age of 60.

By comparison, 44% of licensed drivers who are responsible for just 38% of all storefront crashes are drivers under the age of 40.

While there has been a great deal of research indicating that drivers over 65 are more likely to have pedal error accidents than younger drivers, most of those studies have been conducted by NHTSA or State and Federal Transportation or Highway departments using data collected from reports of incidents which occurred on state or federal roads and highways.  In contrast, most of our data is collected on private property;  parking lots, malls, local streets and driveways, etc.  Significantly, our data also shows that pedal error is the leading cause of vehicle-into-building crashes in such locations -- as high as 36%.

Our data is very different from highway data because pedal error is many times more common in the act of parking or unparking.  Driving into and through parking lots is very much more hazardous than on open roads, as NHTSA pointed out in their report in 2013.  NHTSA noted a study done in North Carolina which showed that injuries and deaths are much more common in lower speed accidents in parking lots and retail storefronts than they are in highway collisios -- mostly because of the presence of unprotected pedestrians outside of stores and vulnerable employees and customers inside the stores.  See the NHTSA study and the North Carolina data HERE.

We have no desire to get into a shouting match with NHTSA, or for that matter with AARP, AAA, and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, all of whom have gone to great lengths to paint the problem in a very different light.  So we will just say that the Storefront Safety Council a very small, all-volunteer organization which would be overjoyed to receive any help or support available from competent parties who would like to help us crunch data, conduct research, or compile anecdotal or media reports on crashes going back to 2004 -- which is what we are trying to do while we attempt to stay current with as many of the sixty or more storefront crashes that we believe occur in the United States every single day.

But we say to those organizations -- if you have better numbers for storefront crashes on private property than we have -- please share them with us.  And if you have them, why in the heck have you not tried to do something to call attention to the problem?

(CLICK TO ENLARGE)

195 crashes into homes in the last two years in neighborhoods in and around Perth Australia have left homeowners worried and real estate agents warning that exposed homes will sell more slowly and for lower prices than homes that are more protected from possible vehicle incursions.

We follow crashes into commercial buildings, and we are focused on incidents occurring in the United States (with Canada also in our sights) but this article caught our eye as being an obvious response to an obvious problem -- and South Florida homeowners (and home buyers) should take take note!  See the Australian report HERE.

While we work hard to document, research, and share our statistics on storefront and related crashes (see our updated statistics HERE) we do come across a huge number of crashes into residential buildings, be they homes or apartments, single family or multifamily.  From a purely anecdotal perspective, we observe MORE reports of crashes into residential structures in the United States than we do commercial/municipal/public buildings.  And again while we have not quantified it, since we observe that there may be as many as 20,000 crashes into commercial buildings every year in the United States, it is clearly a number that is many times larger than that.

Which makes sense -- by some counts there are as many as 150 million residential housing units in the US, and while many of them are apartments and condominiums remote from roads or parking areas, most are not....and that is just more fixed targets to be struck by wayward drivers or out of control cars.  I pulled some figures on number of structures together and pasted them below.

So back to the headline -- since drivers in South Florida seem to run into structures of all kinds at a greater rate than in other parts of the country, are home prices being affected by the media attention from incidents where cars come crashing through them?  If not yet, is that day coming?  We'll keep an eye on the problem for you.


Buildings and their Impact on the Environment: A Statistical Summary
Revised April 22, 2009

1 Residential Buildings • Nearly 128 million residential housing units existed in the U.S. in 2007. (2) Approximately 7.188 million new housing units were built between 2005 and 2009.(3)

2 Commercial Buildings • Nearly 4.9 million office buildings existed in 2003 in the U.S.(4)  Every year, approximately 170,000 commercial buildings are constructed, and nearly 44,000 commercial buildings demolished (1995).(5)

sources
1 2002 Economic Census. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce. http://www.census.gov/econ/census02/advance/TABLE2.HTM
2 American Housing Survey for the United States- 2007. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Department of Commerce. September 2008.
3 Ibid.
4http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cbecs2003/introduction.html. 2003 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey—Overview of Commercial Buildings Characteristics. Energy Information Administration.
5 C-Series Reports. Manufacturing and Construction Division, Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce. 1995.

Seven years ago when I was running Calpipe Security Bollards, I struck up a casual friendship with a gentleman who wrote for Penton Media.  Riccardo Davis ended up writing a timely and very informative article about people driving into shopping malls that ran in Retail Traffic Magazine.  The title of the piece was "CURBING THE MALL DRIVE-THRU" and I am pleased that the link from 2007 is still live -- read this excellent article HERE.

That article discussed three incidents in less than a year where someone drove into malls and caused considerable damage inside to stores and merchandise, as well as to the mall structure itself.  The point was made that for anti-terrorist or anti-theft reasons alone, mall owners should make the investment to protect mall entrances -- protecting malls from malicious drivers or clueless drivers would be an added bonus.

Fast forward seven years.  2500 days later.  And drivers are STILL driving through unprotected shopping malls in the United States.  This time, an 83 year-old driver drove right up an ADA ramp, through a front door, and several hundred feet down a main aisle with people and shoppers and stores in front and on both sides.  He finally crashed into a vacant space at the end of the aisle.

Hudson Mall clearly did not anticipate that anyone would ever drive an SUV up the ADA access ramp from the parking lot, or they would have taken simple measures to prevent it.......What confuse me is how could they NOT know how often this happens?  The three malls mentioned in the article were all owned by national mall companies, and the owner of this mall is a very sophisticated real estate investor.  So WHY so much trouble learning simple lessons that others have learned so much better?

Watch this video coverage from NJ.com -- it is proof that these accidents can and will happen here, there, and every where.  And think to yourself -- what if the next driver is not an innocent and confused driver, but an angry, malicious driver intent on harming people?

There were no reports of injuries this time, but damage will be in the many tens of thousands of dollars.  And an 83 year-old may lose his license.  I hope that this time, the lesson that got swept under the rug for seven years will finally take root -- after all, an accident like that could have just as easily sent a dozen people to the hospital.  What investor or shareholder wants to have to deal with that kind of problem when solutions are so simple, so proven, and so inexpensive?

Some activities are just riskier than others.  And while some risks strike at random, such as earthquakes and lightning and tornadoes, others result from engaging in certain activities, such as sky diving or piloting your own aircraft.

The insurance industry cringes about risks associated with tornadoes and lightning and earthquakes, and most Americans would agree that these are indeed hazards.  Though last year no Americans were killed in earthquakes, 23 people were killed when struck by lightning and 55 were killed by tornadoes.   And sky diving and piloting your own aircraft are generally agreed to be risky activities; in 2011 21 sky divers were killed, and 378 pilots and passengers died in crashes of private aircraft.

But compared to all of these better known risks, it turns out going to the store or sitting and eating a fast food burger or drinking a cup of $4 coffee can be can be even more dangerous.  We believe that at least 500 Americans died last year when a vehicle crashed through the doorways, windows, or walls of stores, restaurants, office buildings and strip malls.  That’s more fatalities than all of these better known risks combined.  Employees, shoppers, customers, and people just entering or leaving through front doors are killed every day when a vehicle leaves the street or parking lot and crashes into a commercial building.  As many as 3600 people were injured last year – and the toll keeps rising.

See our latest releases on updated 2014 statistics HERE.

What do you think?  Of course, millions go into stores and shopping centers and commercial buildings every day, so this discussion is not about a comparison of rates of such accidents.  This is a discussion about the perceptions of the public versus the very real toll of vehicle-into-building crashes.  After all, retailers and property managers and business owners know that there is a very real risk of storefront crashes every day because they suffer through them every day -- do you?

Crimes where thieves use stolen vehicles to gain entry into businesses is all-too common these days.  Today, there were two thefts, one in Kansas and one in Texas, which stood out from all of the others.  Both used stolen vehicles to crash into gas station convenience stores, both involved a number of young men getting out of the ramming vehicle to steal the ATM machine, and both times they failed.  The ATM machines did not come loose, the planning was very poor, and the alarms went off scaring the young men away.

Look closely at this photo -- this is from the video report about the robbery in Houston -- can you see what is missing?  The owners installed security bollards to protect their storefront.  Seven bollards are visible in the photo -- BUT NONE PROTECT THE FRONT DOORS OF THE STORE!  What were they thinking?

For more on this story and to see the video where the still is taken from, see the excellent coverage from Houston Channel 2 HERE.  The reported said that the owner's estimate for the damages was $40,000 to $50,000.  Putting bollards in front of those doors (properly spaced to be in full compliance with ADA requirements) would have cost an additional $600 when those other bollards were installed......This entrance looks more like goal posts than a safe and secure entrance to a place of business. 

Also today, another gas station convenience store was struck, this time in Edwardsville Kansas.....Same basic story:  stolen vehicle, crashes into the store, attempt theft of the ATM, thieves fail and run away when the alarms are activated, and leave behind a destroyed storefront and $50,000 in damage.  See FOX4's coverage HERE.  And predictably, no bollards to protect the storefront.

$100,000 in damage that could have been prevented for a few thousand dollars if someone had just planned ahead.  It is not like this is a surprise -- there may be as many as 50 of these kinds of crash and grab thefts every day in the United States.  And it is being documented in all sorts of retail categories -- security Director News wrote about a rash of thefts where thieves are crashing into salons and beauty supply stores to steal human hair extensions.  See Amy Canfield's piece "Ram-raiders have hairy target -- Smash-and-grab thieves hitting beauty shops".

Protect your stores, protect your investment, protect your employees.  If you do not know how to do this, contact me and I will put you in touch with an expert in your industry or in your area.  Leave your store unprotected and you are what is called "a soft target" -- your insurance agent or the police can tell you what that means if you don't know.  Because there is nothing to prevent them from coming back again NEXT time if you do not take action THIS time.

Day Care facilities are incredibly vulnerable -- perhaps the most heart wrenching storefront crashes we see involve crashes where children are hurt or killed.

The recent crash into a Kindercare in Orlando Florida was such a case.  Many injuries, a little girl killed, horrible images.  That particular incident was one of the reasons that the County of Orange in Florida is working to put together an ordinance requiring some form of protective barriers to prevent such tragedies at vulnerable locations such as child care, elder care, and medical clinic facilities.

This past weekend the was a crash into a day care that was injury-free, because it happened at night.  University Park Illinois saw a speeding car crash into the The Playhouse day care and pre-school and while the images are very powerful, it helps to know that only the driver was injured.

See the great great coverage from WLS ABC Channel 7 HERE.

wonderful that no children were hit by all the flying glass, wonderful that no babies were sleeping in those six cribs.  Wouldn't it be wonderful for the parents who will take their kids there tomorrow morning if they could have piece of mind knowing that proper safety barriers were in place to prevent this from happening again?

Using the photos from WLS, here is a gallery of images.....thank God no children were in that room with all that flying glass.