Elderly Driver Crashes Car Into Quail Ridge Books

Holiday shoppers at Quail Ridge Books & Music in Raleigh, North Carolina, got quite a surprise this past Sunday when an elderly driver crashed her car into the front of the building after she mistook the gas pedal for the brake, ABC11 News reported.

The woman’s white Lexus sedan plowed through the storefront at Ridgewood Shopping Center around 1:00 p.m. on December 20, cracking the front window glass and damaging the building’s brick façade, police said. But no injuries were reported.

“We’re really lucky no one was hurt,” said Quail Ridge store manager Sarah Goddin. “We are open, but it has been a bit of a blow to the season and we may have plywood across our front for a while.”

The store has been able to stay open during one of the busiest shopping days before Christmas by directing customers to use its back entrance and getting permission from the neighboring Rite Aid to use that store’s entrance.

During the incident and its aftermath, bookstore staff provided updates on the situation via Facebook and Twitter. Among the store’s tweets were several dramatic photos, including a shot of the shattered front window and of first responders cleaning up the broken glass.

Earlier this month, Quail Ridge owner Lisa Poole announced that in March 2016 the bookstore would be moving out of its current location in the Ridgewood Shopping Plaza and would reopen in April at the North Hills Shopping Center, five miles away. The bookstore, formerly owned by Nancy Olson, has been in the Ridgewood Shopping Plaza for the past 20 years, but was unable to renegotiate its lease.