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2 families displaced when car plows into public housing units
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Rob Varela / Star staff Oxnard Fire Department Capt. Roy Peacock removes debris from an apartment after a driver hit the gas instead of the brake. Structural damage was estimated at $500,000.
Photos by Rob Varela / Star staff A car is removed from an Oxnard apartment after the driver hit the gas instead of the brake and drove into the living room. The driver and her passenger suffered minor injuries. No one was in the apartment at the time.
Rob Varela / Star staff Oxnard Fire Department Capt. Roy Peacock removes debris from an apartment after a driver hit the gas instead of the brake. Structural damage was estimated at $500,000.
Julie del Rosario watches as a vehicle is removed from the apartment next to hers on Tuesday. Del Rosario was watching television next door, just a few feet away, when the crash occurred. "It was a bit shocking," neighbor Jan Ronquillo said. "I'm just happy no one got hurt."
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More from CamarilloTwo families were displaced from their homes at an Oxnard public housing complex after a car slammed into the side of the building Tuesday, authorities said.
A car traveling down Bismark Way toward the road's dead end at Concord Drive drove straight into the two-story, four-unit complex at 11:56 a.m., said Battalion Chief Mike O'Malia of the Oxnard Fire Department.
The vehicle plowed through the wall of one of the complex's units and ended up in the home's living room.
The five family members who live in the residence were not home at the time, and no one in the housing complex was injured, authorities said.
The driver, Ethel Brousseau, 85, of Port Hueneme, and a 70-year-old female passenger from Oxnard were taken to St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard with non-life-threatening injuries, authorities said.
Oxnard police said they were still investigating the accident late Tuesday, but it appears the driver was trying to stop at a stop sign when she hit the gas pedal instead of the brakes, sending the vehicle over a curb and into the building.
Oxnard Fire Department investigators estimated damage to the complex at $500,000.
Two units sustained severe structural damage. The one directly hit was red-tagged as uninhabitable, and another — also housing a family of five — was yellow-tagged as safe only for limited access. Two other units in the complex lost utility services for much of the afternoon.
A total of 21 people from the four families were initially displaced, but two families returned as utilities were restored, Housing Authority Site Manager Patricia Magallanes said.
Sitting on the grass outside the complex after making arrangements via cell phone, Magallanes said the two families whose units were damaged would be staying at a local hotel at least through the weekend.
After the crash, Oxnard firefighters spent about 90 minutes shoring up the building with wooden beams to prevent a possible collapse. A section of Concord Drive was closed while they worked.
The housing complex contains subsidized, low-income housing. The rent for the two displaced families will remain the same while they are in temporary housing, Magallanes said.
Several neighbors said they were unnerved by the crash. Jan Ronquillo, 21, said his mother was watching television when the car drove into the neighboring apartment and cracked the wall of his home, now yellow-tagged.
He was across the street when his mother called him, shaken, saying she had almost been hit by a car, he said. When he raced home, he saw the vehicle sitting inside his neighbor's living room.
"It was a bit shocking," he said. "I'm just happy no one got hurt."
Posted by you on May 14, 2008 at 6:35 a.m. (Suggest removal)
There's a typo in your headline on the front page. You mean "brake" and not "break". Spell check isn't always enough, you know. Someone needs to PROOFREAD.
Posted by wynonarose on May 14, 2008 at 7:04 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Don't want to seem overly judgmental, but 85 years old? Confused between the brake and the gas? Sounds like an accident waiting to happen. Wait...it did.
Posted by Hueneme_girl29 on May 14, 2008 at 7:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Wynonarose - I agree. Not every eldery person is sliding on their driving skills, however, several are. There needs to be a yearly driving test for drivers over 70 - 75. I'm 28 and drove with my 76 year old grandmother recently. It was life altering! She topped out at 25mph in a 45mph zone, and people behind her started to honk at her and she's yelling "Go around!!" - Not quite the rules of the road these days. I suggested that she get re-evaluated on her driving skills - boy did I get an earful for that.
Posted by rebel123 on May 14, 2008 at 8:37 a.m. (Suggest removal)
A case of pedal mis-identification and not an uncommon thing in the elderly. They hit the gas and their brain thinks they are really on the brake....so they think they need to press harder to stop and end up accelerating even faster. The more the car goes, the more they think they have to press harder. Then they often swear that the accelerator stuck. When seniors get to the point where they start to shuffle when they walk (gait issues), it is time to give up the license because they are going to have difficulty getting their foot from the gas to the brake.
Posted by tsetsaf on May 14, 2008 at 9:09 a.m. (Suggest removal)
A close friends grandmother (75) performed a similar act by running right through a cross walk, hitting and injuring a kid. It has been amazing to see how hard it is for that family to try and take the car away from her. It has nearly destroyed the family.
Posted by lilmama on May 14, 2008 at 9:47 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I think that ALL drivers should have to perform some kind of reaction time simulation of sorts before being licensed to drive a vehicle. This is so dangerous!!! And it happens far too often. Never a day goes by that I don't get stuck behind some old person driving a huge car going 25 miles an hour while getting onto the freeway! Who gives a crap about pride if people's lives and safety is at stake? Family members..."TAKE THE KEYS AWAY!!!" They'll get over it.
Posted by DREAMZ on May 14, 2008 at 10:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I heard from the next door neighbor of the destroyed complex, that these ladies were drinking early that morning. One of the ladies were celebrating her birthday. I guess they didn't want to disclose that.
Posted by vcsexplorer11 on May 14, 2008 at 10:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Now they have a garage instead of a carport.
Posted by amyraeus on May 14, 2008 at 12:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I work with one of the families who have been displaced by this accident. I am coordinating donations that will address their immediate needs given that they are unable to enter their home even for clothing, food or medication. Please contact me at amyraeus@yahoo.com for further information about how you can help. Thanks!!
Posted by lilmamma on May 14, 2008 at 12:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)
85 is too old to be driving she should be taking the bus.
Posted by dgreene on May 14, 2008 at 12:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)
This is a terrible accident, but could of been prevented. If we required a yearly evaluation for drivers over a certain age, we could make sure we didn't have drivers like this on the road. Now who gets to pay for the damage and accomodate the people displaced by this tragedy?
Posted by rebel123 on May 14, 2008 at 1:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)
They still have to get to a bus stop, which is difficult for most seniors. We need a community service van for seniors like they do in Ojai...>HELP of Ojai runs a van service for seniors that is a door to door thing. You can't expect an 85 year old to walk several blocks to and from bus stops, nor to wait at stops that don't have seating and shelter.
Posted by keem_s on May 14, 2008 at 5 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Don't worry it will buff right out.
Posted by sparks240 on May 14, 2008 at 6:36 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I know a 85 year old that still races cars at vintage car meets. He is a very good driver. I would bet that teenagers are more of a menace on the road than the elderly.
Posted by MOffermann on May 15, 2008 at 10:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This is why we need limits on driving ages or at least have older citizens test more after a certain age, not to demean them, not by any means, but so that themselves and the people they are driving around are safe.
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