Sometimes a storefront is just not meant to be.
The owner of the 7-Eleven Hiroshima Mitsugi Store in Onomichi City, having been the victim of an automobile collision with their establishment, decided to install some iron guard rails around the perimeter to prevent the same thing from happening again. The chances of that were slim, but it was a small price to pay for some peace of mind.
However, it is also important for a convenience store to convey a sense of welcoming, and iron bars across the front door violates that golden rule of retail. So a small gap was put in, allowing just enough free access to and from the entrance. After all, what are the chances of another car not only being small enough, but precise enough to crash into that tiny vulnerable spot?
Shortly after 11 a.m. on 24 March, a call came into the police from someone witnessing a kei car (Japanese class of lightweight, compact vehicles) crash into the front doors of the 7-Eleven Hiroshima Mitsugi Store. The vehicle had stuck with such force that it completely entered the shop.
▼ It got in so deep you might not even notice it in this picture at first
Luckily, none of the staff or customers present in the shop at the time of the crash were injured, and the 79-year-old driver and his wife who were inside the car were also unharmed. It is suspected that the driver mistook his car’s accelerator for the brake pedal, causing the vehicle to lurch forward exactly through the unprotected section of storefront.
Readers of the news were quick to declare their incredulity:
“He did that on purpose.”
“He totally did that on purpose.”
“Guess he was in a hurry to get in there.”
“There’s no way that could have possibly been an accident.”
“You can’t park in front of the entrance. That was on purpose.”
“He really knows how to make an entrance.”
It certainly does seem fishy. Although the following Google Street View was taken before the bars were installed, the layout of the parking spaces is the same. No space is directly in front of the doors, making it even harder for a car to accidentally make that one in a million shot.
Then again, it’s probably a lot to ask of someone who would mistake the brake and accelerator to also know the difference between a parking space and a walkway. This, combined with the fact that these types of crashes seem to happen a lot more than you might expect, appears to be making the police less suspicious, but the investigation is still ongoing.
Source: NHK News Web, Itai News
Top image: Wikipedia/Tckma
