In July of 2003 tragedy struck the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market. A 4500 pound Buick driven by an 86 year-old man became a weapon of mass destruction, killing 10 people and injuring 63. Shortly after this incident I was contacted by the press and attorneys who asked if I could help explain how this might have been prevented.
- Retail Store 24%
- Restaurant 19%
- Commercial Building 12%
- Office 8%
- Convenient Store 6%
- Government Building 3%
- All other locations 32%
- Under 30 29%
- 30-60 33%
- 60+ 38%
- Operator Error 22%
- Pedal Error 17%
- DUI 15%
- Traffic Accident 12%
- Medical 6%
- Ramraid / Crash and Grab 9%
- All other causes 21%
Deliberate vehicle attacks are NOT unusual and there are many methods of reducing the threat or preventing the event.
7-Eleven’s recent $91 million settlement for an accident in its forecourt highlights an alarmingly common — and potentially hazardous — issue.
Gas pumps are struck every day in America — and more than once a week, a crash results in a fire and explosion. Here is an Inside Edition Report on the Caballes case in Florida — a tragic incident that resulted in a landmark settlement.
Gas pumps are struck every day in America — and more than once a week, a crash results in a fire and explosion. Here is an Inside Edition Report on the Caballes case in Florida — a tragic incident that resulted in a landmark settlement.
Our Storefront crash statistics are the most complete ever assembled for accidents of this type. As of 2022 our database contains more than 25,000 analyzed accidents and an additional 15,000 additional accidents collected but not analyzed (and not included in our statistical reporting). Analysis includes statistics on causation of crashes, age of drivers, and types of buildings or businesses most frequently struck by vehicles. We have cooperated with the Texas Traffic Institute at Texas A&M University. More and more trends seem to be developing and becoming more clear.
Our Storefront crash statistics are the most complete ever assembled for accidents of this type. As of June 2022, our database contains more than 25,000 analyzed accidents and an additional 15,000 additional accidents collected but not analyzed (and not included in our statistical reporting). The analysis includes statistics on the causation of crashes, the age of drivers, and types of buildings or businesses most frequently struck by vehicles. We have cooperated with the Texas Traffic Institute at Texas A&M University. More and more trends seem to be developing and becoming more clear.
We believe that our storefront crash statistics are the most extensive for private property accidents of this type. While accidents at such sites (shopping centers, strip malls, storefront locations) are very common, neither
Federal or State agencies or local law enforcement departments are set up to gather such statistics.
In April 2022 we completed an exchange of data and methodologies with an arm of Lloyd’s of London, the largest insurance market in the world. In exchange for the use of our data for their own risk assessment and risk profiling purposes, Lloyd’s agreed to review and audit our data and collection methodologies, the accuracy of our data, and the value of our data on an ongoing basis. Lloyd’s found that our data was valid and credible and that our collection methodology gave them such high confidence that our collection of data concerning vehicle-into-building / storefront crashes should be used by researchers and risk managers as “source data” given the lack of any other available data sets involving private property accidents in the United States.
Lloyd’s concluded in their remarks that our data, as complete as it is, reflects only a fraction of the total of storefront crashes that occur every single day: At the most conservative, it appears that the SSC database captures 1 in 12 incidents (8.33%). Using the data that we have collected and using Lloyd’s audit and documentation, we can make the following statements:
- Storefront crashes occur more than 100 times per day
- 46% of all storefront crashes result in an injury
- 8% of all storefront crashes result in a fatality
- Each year in the US, as many as 16,000 people are injured and as many as 2600 are killed in vehicle-into-building crashes.
We believe that this information will be very useful to researchers, underwriters, risk managers, and other safety professionals who will be advising agencies on building codes and product specifications to increase safety where Americans live, work, play and shop.