SEQUIM — The postmaster at the South Sunnyside Avenue post office in Sequim plans to reopen front-counter customer service today after repairs were being made Wednesday to the postal building’s smashed-up lobby, the result of a Sequim motorist driving her vehicle into it.
Patricia Melear, 81, was unhurt, and no others were hurt inside the postal building, 230 S. Sunnyside Ave.
Her foot was stuck on the accelerator instead of the brake, and her 2002 Subaru Outback lunged into the mostly glass entrance and lobby at about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Sequim Police Lt. Sheri Crain said.
“We’re going to send her into the Department of Licensing for retesting to see if there are issues there,” Crain said.
Post office employees were greeting customers and collecting their mail Wednesday afternoon where the post office’s interior was blocked off.
The facility remained open with access to mailboxes and postage vending machines via the Maple Street entrance at the side of the office.
“We hope to fix it tonight and open in the morning,” said Postmaster Steve Allen, standing in the lobby strewn with broken glass and other debris that employees were cleaning up with brooms, dust pans and trash cans.
“We have to secure the area,” he added.
Carpenters working Wednesday
Carpenters were reframing the damaged entrance Wednesday night.
Debris blocked the entrance to the customer counter after the crash, so Allen opted to close that end of the building, keeping open the parking lot and building entrance fronting Maple Street.
The main parking lot fronting South Sunnyside was barricaded at the entrance and temporarily cordoned off with yellow police tape so customers would not drive into it.
The drive-through to post office mailboxes just off South Sunnyside remained accessible to motorists.
Allen said it was not the first time that such a crash has occurred at the facility, which led to spaces blocked at the sidewalk with curbs and bollards.
Crain said the motorist was apparently at such an angle that she drove over the concrete curb fronting the parking stall, and the car bolted between bollards.
Other crashes
During the past 14 months in Sequim, an elderly woman drove into the front of Remote Control Hobbies shop at the Walmart parking lot near the Priest Road entrance, and an 82-year-old man drove into the entrance of the Safeway supermarket off West Washington Street.
Joe Borden, who has taught AARP drivers education courses in Sequim for motorists from age 50 to as old as 97, said typically the police department will refer a motorist with driving issues to the state Department of Licensing, who may in turn refer the motorist to case workers at Olympic Medical Center.
The case worker will review the motorist using psychological and physical tests, said Borden, who has taught the AARP course for two years.
Those classes have included the two motorists who crashed into buildings, he said.
Borden explained that a motorist can have trouble lifting his foot off the accelerator to put on the brake because of an age-related physical problem.
He said he can also refer motorists to a case worker if necessary.
The classes Borden teaches are voluntary. He is teaching a class with 38 students tonight.
AARP training
The AARP training helps aging motorists adjust to drive more safely and gives them an insurance discount.
“As we get older, our eyesight changes, our hearing changes, our reactions change,” he said, adding that depth perception also can be an issue.
Something as simple as a cushion to raise up a smaller woman in the driver’s seat can improve her view of the road, he said.
“The majority of issues have to do with them having a car that was too big,” he said, and the driver was having trouble seeing over the steering wheel.
Borden’s classes are scheduled through the Sequim Senior Activity Center.
For more information, phone 360-683-6806.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
