Why print the gender of the driver, but not her age? Not that a younger person would be driving a car like that.

This is Palo Alto. Definitely COULD have been a younger driver... I've seen high school students driving to school in nicer cars.

It was an elderly person with a medical issue- was at TJ's when this happened.

@parent:

Since you don't seem to be very aware, here in the SF Bay Area, a lot of people in their twenties can afford such cars. Many local employers pays well (Facebook, Google, Genentech, Apple, Yahoo, etc.).

The CLA250 is one of the most affordable models from Mercedes-Benz, a mass market 4-cylinder model.

Samuel L. is correct, a lot of local kids drive these kind of cars too. Palo Alto and many surrounding towns have affluent residents who are able and willing to finance such vehicles for teens and young adults. This is not a recent phenomenon.

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There is no stop sign in front of that shop, meaning the driver can proceed. It is totally legal.

@Reader from another community - Parent said "would" not "could". It was famously described as "an Old Person’s Idea of a Young Person’s Car."

We have a loaner from the Mercedes dealer this week while our SmartCar is in the shop. Nice trade up! But, the gear shifting on this car is totally weird. You have to push a button on the end of the shift column to get the car into Park. Otherwise it is in Drive. Hard enough for a 'young' person to get straight. Is this that type of gear-shift control? It would be easy to think you are stopped, but still be in a forward gear. This is why we need self-driving cars. All the electronics in new cars are too complicated for us normal people.

Glad no one is hurt.

The usual cause of crashes like this is the driver accidentally pushing the accelerator instead of the brake.
And while it can happen to young drivers, it is very common in the elderly.

I used to live in Los Gatos, where on Friday and Saturday nights high school kids drive Ferraris and high-end BMWs down Santa Cruz AVE and Main St.

The parking lot at Los Gatos High was filled with high end cars!

For all of you so eager to jump on the assumption it's age-related, statistics do not show okder drivers have more accidents. A couple of years ago, a car ran off Embarcadero, all the way across the parking lot and into Books Inc area. Not an old person. Mixing up pedals may be more of a problem for the truly aged (and the new Merc controls are weird), but killing people is the specialty of other age groups. Web Link

Mutti is RIGHT! Those semi-pushbutton console shifters are downright dangerous and not intuitive--especially if you have more than one car and both don't have that type of shifter. Many car companies have gone weird on that feature.

@Chrisc - Statistics do show elderly drivers have more accidents. They are the second highest risk group after teens. 16-17 is the worst by far, and rates decline as you age until age 60, at which point the accident rate spike back up.

I just saw a 16 year old kid get out of his Brand New Audi R8 ($162,900). He parked like 2 feet away from the curb. The parking enforcer just happen to be right there and told him to move it or he gets a ticket. The kid was like, uhh. Come on kid!

This is definitely going on "Behaving Badly in Palo Alto's" page on Facebook. lol

What is important is to realize that the eating areas near there like Calafia, Mayfields all have open air seating and traffic is horrible near the CVS pharmacy and coffee shops.

My prayers for fast recovery of the driver. We may need barriers such as planters to prevent cars that can injure people and display windows.

respectfully

Seems like a clear cut case of thinking you pressed the break pedal but you actually pressed the accelerator pedal instead.

You're brain is convinced you are hitting the break...so you double down and press the accelerator harder. Whoosh...through the storefront you go.

There is very good explanation of this situation in Malcolm Gladwell's podcast.

Web Link

No other explanation is required.

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@John_Alderman I think you are correct. I should've clarified, They are more the Fender-bender variety, and when there is a fatality, it's usually the older driver him/herself. Most older drivers adapt for their declining abilities like not driving at night or.avoiding difficult intersections. I learned all that at AARP''s Mature Driving class, which is excellent. We need to know that no matter what we think, certain abilities do decline and we need to adapt.