From Cheryl Fiandaca's "First lawsuit to be filed in deadly crash at Hingham Apple store" updated Tuesday by CBS Boston:
Days after the horrific Apple store crash in Hingham, new steel barriers were put on the sidewalk along the boarded-up storefront. Lawyers representing several injured victims in the first lawsuit filed after the crash say they should have been there all along.
Attorney Doug Sheff, who represents several people who were hurt in the crash, is expected to file the lawsuit on Tuesday.
"This storefront was so vulnerable, it would have been a very easy fix. This tragedy was 100% preventable and for such a small cost," Sheff told WBZ-TV.
He points the blame in the lawsuit against the driver Bradley Rein, Apple, and the companies that developed, own, and manage the property, saying there should have been safeguards in place.
"This parking lot was only 10 yards or so from this glass storefront. It was entirely foreseeable, and for folks controlling this property not to have thought about that, and to prevent this kind of accident from happening, to expose the public from these dangers really is inconceivable. It is a terrible, terrible shame," Sheff said.
My take: Hindsight is good; foresight better.
See also: Hey Tim Cook, maybe it's time for Apple to install some bollards
What about bike lanes, sidewalks, and crosswalks where people / pedestrians are also at risk?
Business proprietors know poignantly of these deterrents’ effectiveness in saving lives and in reducing thefts, yet some shopping center owners and/or store proprietors decide to avoid the added costs hoping or believing such incidents never will happen to them.
I owned custom framing businesses and art galleries in strip shopping centers and malls. I sustained “smash & grab” burglaries and one incident involving an elderly lady who inadvertently applied the accelerator instead of the brake pedal while parking resulting in her vehicle driving directly through the plate glass windows into my gallery after jumping the outside curb.
These accidents and robberies happen in shopping centers. It is the same reason we mandate drivers wear safety belts, construct concrete barriers and installed cable fences between opposite interstate highway lanes to save human lives.
Asked the loved ones of the deceased man if the cost of these deterrents would have been worth the minor expenditure by Apple and the shopping center. Ask those individuals smashed by the speeding vehicle while shopping inside the store and who now will suffer debilitating injuries resulting in physical pain, emotional discomfort and loss of physical and perhaps mental capacities to live their lives fully.
It is unfathomable to me how the Apple representatives involved in building out these stores or the owners of the shopping center did not recognize the seriousness of this oversight.
This is all about doing what’s right. It is a travesty that it took this incident to move the shopping center and Apple to initiate what they already should have done.
How many store are situated as the Apple Store is? How many accidents like this have occurred in the last 70 years?
What are going to do to protect pedestrians, walking in a parking lot, from the same errant driver?
We can design and build fortresses, but nobody will like them.
The outrage being expressed here and elsewhere is an emotional reaction to a horrible, unforeseen event caused by an errant driver. If events like this were commonplace the public’s reaction wouldn’t be so great. The fact is that this type of event is not commonplace. The one in a hundred million event wasn’t planned for, how many others are out there that we don’t know exist? Who are we going to blame when they rear their ugly hears?
Brother Gregg, the attached article denoted that just in the state of Massachusetts alone, the Storefront Safety Council shows from 2013-2022 there have been more than 800 crashes involving cars into buildings in Massachusetts. That is only one state. If we just took that number and multiplied it by 50 states, then we have 40,000 crashes during that period.
What is the magic number that you believe we need to reach as “commonplace” to spend a little money to save lives and prevent devastating injuries to people who want to shop without worrying about a car crashing through the glass store front entry? I’m not being frivolous in asking you this question, because 800 documented crashes in the small state of Massachusetts seems awful high to me. When do you see Apple doing the right thing?
As a former police officer I can tell you, with confidence, that the driver was going far faster than 25 MPH and his excuse doesn’t hold up. Since this incident I have become more aware of my own parking lot speed. Ten MPH is 4X faster than pedestrians walk. Fifteen MPH is speeding.
Would bollards have been beneficial in this case, absolutely. Was an idiot behind the wheel? What safety measures would you install to protect people walking in the parking lot, to/from the store, from drivers like this idiot?
You can’t regulate/prevent stupid.