The driver's foot slipped off the brake and onto the gas, his wife said. No one was injured in the crash.
By CHRIS TISCH
Published January 1, 2004
CLEARWATER - Fred Buchanan was headed to his doctor's office Wednesday morning for a shot.
The 82-year-old Palm Harbor man pulled his gray 1995 Dodge Intrepid into the parking lot. Then his foot slipped from the brake and onto the gas. His car shot into the building, plowing through brick and stucco and leaving a hole in the wall.
"He was pulling into the parking space, went over a curb, through the bushes and hit the building," said Matt Novak, a spokesman for Mease Hospital, which owns the building at 3251 McMullen-Booth Road.
Buchanan's car blasted through the wall of Dr. Kathleen Peditto's office. Novak said the car damaged two of the doctor's exam rooms. No one was in the rooms, though some people were in a room down the hall, he said.
"There were no injuries, which is very fortunate," Novak said.
Buchanan was unavailable for comment Wednesday, but his wife, Theresa, said her husband's foot slipped from the brake to the accelerator. "It was just a slip of the foot," she said. She said her husband doesn't have a poor driving history. She said his eyesight is perfect and his mental capacity is good. Florida driving records confirm he has no previous citations in the state. However, Pinellas sheriff's deputies cited him for careless driving after the 7:14 a.m. crash.
"It's the first ticket he's gotten in 50 years," his wife said.
Novak said the car left a 5-foot by 3-foot hole in the building. He said the hospital is planning to move Peditto into a vacant office while it's repaired. Though he didn't have a damage estimate Wednesday, he said it will take more than two weeks to fix.
