DANVERS, Mass. — A 1-year-old girl from Gloucester who was injured when a car drove into the Route 114 Walmart Tuesday remains hospitalized and is scheduled to undergo surgery today, according to news reports this morning.
The girl and her 25-year-old mother, Alaina Hayes of Gloucester, were injured when Louis Vesprini, 93, of Peabody, mistakenly stepped on the gas pedal instead of the brake, driving his 1998 Toyota Camry through the exit of the store before it came to a halt 40 feet inside the store.
Police say he may have been looking for a handicapped parking space.
An eerily similar accident occurred yesterday in Plymouth, when a 73-year-old woman looking for a handicapped space near a moveable Vietnam Memorial Wall in Plymouth, Mass., hit the gas and plowed into a crowd of people, injuring six.
The Danvers accident also sent six people, including Hayes and her 1-year-old daughter, Makayla, to the hospital. The baby was taken first to Salem Hospital and then, by helicopter, to Children's Hospital Boston.
According to police, Vesprini's car barreled between two pillars, 6 feet apart, before plowing into the building. Hayes and her child were inside the store when the car struck them, according to police and witnesses.
"All you could hear was a woman screaming: 'My baby! My baby's head was split open,'" said witness Margie Burns, 68, of South Peabody.
Police are reviewing what they describe as remarkably good video images of the car crash. A North Andover accident reconstruction team is helping out with the investigation.
The reconstruction team will first try to determine the speed of the car, Bettencourt said, "And the whole car gets checks." Witnesses will be interviewed again.
Bettencourt said a report on the accident might not be available until next week.
Both Vesprini and his wife, Lena, who was in the vehicle at the time of the accident, live at the Brooksby Village senior community in Peabody, which is immediately adjacent to the Walmart store. His license has been revoked by the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
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