Driver mistakes gas for brake; crashes into Santa Rosa allergy clinic

A 68-year-old Rohnert Park woman pulling into a parking spot at a Santa Rosa business park Tuesday hit the accelerator instead of the brake, sending her car across a landscaped lawn before slamming it into an allergy clinic, police said.

The 12:15 p.m. crash sent glass shards from floor-to-ceiling windows raining into the full waiting room at FamilyCare Allergy & Asthma at the Stony Point Road East office near West Ninth Street, Officer Steve Merical said. Patients were covered with glass, but no one was cut.

Driver Jerri Gariss turned the Hyundai Elantra sedan just as it hit a corner beam of the building, a maneuver that caused the vehicle to glance off the building, and back across the lawn and paths until it hit a tree, Merical said.

“Nobody was hit, just glass thrown all over the place and onto people,” Merical said. “It was very fortunate.”

Gariss had minor injuries and was taken by ambulance to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital as a precaution, Merical said.

A patient in the clinic also was hospitalized for a tweaked neck possibly caused when she jumped in response to the cacophony of the crash, he said.

Santa Rosa Fire Battalion Chief Mark Basque said the building remained structurally sound after the crash because a steel post absorbed the impact.

FamilyCare Allergy & Asthma CEO John Petrick said the office would reopen at 9 a.m. today.

Property managers secured the broken windows after the building inspector gave the OK to operate, said Petrick, who runs the business with his wife, Dr. Maria Petrick.

“No one was hit - talk about being lucky,” said Petrick, who was away when the crash occurred. “We had a clinic full of almost 30 people.”

Merical said no criminal charges apply in the circumstances of the crash because it occurred on private property.

Police filed a request with the Department of Motor Vehicles to have Gariss’ driving capabilities re-evaluated “for her safety and for the safety of other people,” Merical said.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.