Driver hits gas instead of brake, plows into store

Talk about a wake-up call. A gas station attendant working the coffee machine got a rude surprise Sunday morning when a 57-year-old woman who thought she was putting her car in reverse plowed into the store.

The woman put her Jeep Liberty into drive rather than reverse at Chevron, 3000 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa. When she started moving, she panicked and hit the gas instead of the brake, Officer Scott Dibble said. “It was so scary, everything fell down and the door broke,” said Zeineb Abrahim, the clerk who scrambled to get out of the way of the car. “I didn’t believe the car was inside.”

The entire car, aside from its rear bumper, plunged into the store. The crash damaged half of the store. But, incredibly, the car did not suffer much damage, other than some cosmetic scars, police said.

The driver was not cited because the accident happened on private property.

— Kelly Strodl, Kristi Allen, Daniel Tedford