A 70-year-old man attempting to park his car instead sent it crashing through the front of a boba bar and dessert shop in a National City strip mall yesterday evening, according to fire officials. No one was hurt in the crash, which occurred after business hours at the shopping center on Plaza Bonita Way, but the building has since been red-tagged as unsafe for occupancy while repairs and further inspections are underway.
National City Fire Department crews responded to the 1132 E. Plaza Bonita Way address yesterday evening and found the vehicle had punched into the storefront, as reported by FOX 5 San Diego. The driver reportedly hit the accelerator instead of the brake while trying to park, sending the car into the business, which the outlet says appears to be a boba bar and desserts shop based on its location. The driver was uninjured, and the business was closed at the time of the impact.
Fire officials are now evaluating the structural damage to the building, the station's report notes, and have red-tagged it in the meantime. Under California building and safety enforcement guidelines, a red-tag placard signifies that a structure has sustained damage severe enough to make it unsafe for occupancy, legally barring entry until certified repairs and re-inspections are completed, according to the City of San Diego. It remains unclear how long repairs will take or whether the boba shop will need to meet any updated safety standards before reopening.
A Familiar Pattern in Pedal-Error Crashes
Yesterday's crash fits a well-documented national pattern involving older drivers and parking-lot pedal confusion. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that pedal misapplication errors cause roughly 16,000 preventable crashes annually across the country, averaging nearly 44 incidents every day, per research cited by Hardy Wolf & Downing. That same federal research shows drivers over 65 and drivers under 20 experience these pedal mix-ups about four times more often than other age groups.
The pattern extends specifically to commercial buildings like the one struck yesterday. Data from the Storefront Safety Council indicates vehicles crash into storefronts, retail centers, and offices roughly 60 times a day nationwide, causing over 4,000 injuries and up to 500 deaths annually, according to the Rhine Law Firm, P.C. Separate Storefront Safety Council findings show drivers over 60 account for roughly 45 percent of all such storefront collisions nationwide, a demographic link researchers attribute in part to cognitive processing factors and reduced physical sensation that can slow pedal correction in older drivers.
Could Barriers Have Prevented This?
Whether the National City shopping center had wheel stops or protective bollards in place before Saturday's crash is not yet known. Engineered solutions do exist: ASTM International maintains the ASTM F3016 standard, which crash-tests and certifies bollards designed to stop a 5,000-pound vehicle traveling 10 to 30 mph, limiting penetration into a storefront to four feet or less, according to Post Guard. California has also tried to encourage such upgrades — in 2016 the state passed Assembly Bill 2161, becoming the first in the nation to let insurers offer premium discounts to commercial properties with compliant vehicle barriers, per California Legislative Information.
Local traffic data underscores why such precautions matter in National City specifically. The city recorded 331 total fatal and injury traffic collisions in 2019, ranking 11th highest among 105 peer California cities of similar size, according to the California Office of Traffic Safety. The National City Police Department maintains a dedicated Traffic Division, staffed with motor officers and a serious traffic offender coordinator, that investigates major collisions and works with city engineers on safety fixes.
It's not the only recent crash to rattle the area. Hoodline previously reported on a National City DUI death case that ended in a deadlocked jury, and on a broader wave of fatal crashes across the county. For now, whether the boba shop's building can shed its red-tag status — and how quickly repairs will proceed — remains an open question.
