Police said it was a 16-year-old girl who had just received her permit and was taking one of her first driving lessons with her dad, who accidentally caused the damage after hitting the car's accelerator pedal instead of the brake. Police responded to the Green Hollow Drive apartment complex at around 10:20pm. Police Lt. Gregory Conklin said the girl was getting a driving lesson from her father when she apparently became confused and hit the accelerator pedal instead of the brake and struck a load-bearing wall on the building.
Patrick Kenny, Woodbridge Office of Emergency Management director, said that when the car came off the road, it hit three of the six gas meters on that side of the building, pushing the meters into the wall. Conklin said that about 40 residents living in the 12 apartments were safely evacuated, as the building was filling with explosive levels gas. PSE&G cut off gas to the building. Kenny said tenants in other buildings in the apartment complex were instructed to shelter in place.
No injuries were reported, Conklin said. He said six apartments were deemed uninhabitable. The tenants relocated with relatives, officials said. Kenny said contractors were back out at the building early Friday to repair the load-bearing wall and close it up. "It's almost done," said Kenny, who hoped to have all of the tenants back in their homes soon. He said the apartments have to be air tested to make sure there are no gas leaks, and new gas meters need to be installed.
3 comments:
Gah! Having just gotten my youngest to the point of being licensed, I can say no new driver should be on the road for the first half-dozen lessons or do. We started each kid in a pasture, then in a parking lot, then in a cemetery. When they get fairly good at controlling the car, then you put them in the road.
When I took driver's ed in school, mumble-mumble years ago (okay, it was ca. 1969 or 1970), the behind-the-wheel part was done mostly on a stadium's parking lot (the school system had made arrangements, of course).
Lacking training space, I wonder how kids in, say, New York City or London learn. Has to be nerve-wracking.
Lurker111
It tickles me that so many still use this unsafe and inefficient way of cooking and heating their houses.
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