”
Special delivery
”
took on a new meaning last week at the Morgan Hill Post Office
when a very pregnant woman narrowly escaped devastating injury to
herself and her baby.
“Special delivery” took on a new meaning last week at the Morgan Hill Post Office when a very pregnant woman narrowly escaped devastating injury to herself and her baby.
She had a healthy baby girl Thursday night only hours after an elderly driver smashed her car through the front doors of the post office, breaking the mother-to-be’s leg.
The situation could easily have been much worse. Postal workers say a dozen or more people are often in the area where the car smashed through the glass.
The 75-year-old driver apparently confused the accelerator with the brake and shot forward, ending up in the lobby stamp machine instead of stopping at the curb. The police have asked the DMV to revoke the driver’s license to prevent a repeat occurrence, possibly with even more serious consequences.
However, this is the third time somebody has plowed through this post office building – the entire front wall is glass. Now’s the time to apply the ounce-of-prevention action. Building a barrier is an obvious solution, a reinforced concrete wall at most or, at least, a series of metal or concrete bollards – or posts – spaced at appropriate distances.
Possibly the handicapped parking spaces could be moved one space out, moving the trajectory of a car pulling into those slots away from the unprotected front doors and closer to the bollards or wall. In fact, there is no reason why bollards couldn’t be installed in front of the doors too. They don’t inhibit pedestrian traffic.
The police department needs to weigh in with a safety recommendation to postal authorities. Meanwhile, the public should keep their wits about them when venturing into the building. And hang on to the kids.
If you’d like to join in the effort to have this project given a high priority, give Postmaster Darrell Stoke at 779-4834.
Oh, and we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that the postal service should take the Morgan Hill design flaw into consideration before it builds a new Gilroy Post Office. Of course, most of us won’t be around by that time.
