Rollover Crash At Costco In Rohnert Park Injures 1, Police Say

ROHNERT PARK, CA — A rollover crash that left one person injured Sunday afternoon at the Rohnert Park Costco was caused by "gas-pedal confusion" on the part of a driver who also did not have a valid driver's license, according to the Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety.

Officers were dispatched at 2:54 p.m. Sunday to the incident in the parking lot of Costco on Redwood Drive at Martin Avenue and arrived to find a Mercury SUV on its roof and a Dodge pickup truck with major front-end damage, Rohnert Park police said in a news release.

The SUV was in the landscaping along the driveway and its driver, a 57-year-old woman, was still seat-belted in her seat but was helped out of her vehicle by officers. The woman appeared to have minor injuries but was transported to a local hospital by ambulance for further evaluation, police said.

"The driver of the SUV would have likely suffered far more serious injuries if she had not been wearing her seatbelt as she was driving out of the parking lot," police officials said.

The 50-year-old driver of the Dodge did not have any apparent injuries, nor did his passenger, according to police.

Officers investigating the collision determined the driver of the Dodge truck was pulling up to a gas pump in the parking lot — facing toward the driveway entrance — when he said he mistook the gas pedal for the brake.

As the driver accelerated quickly forward, the Dodge truck went up and over the raised landscaping between the gas station and the entrance where the driver of the SUV was waiting in a line of cars to exit the parking lot, police said.

The impact of the collision sent the SUV across the driveway where it rolled and landed on its roof.

"The two vehicles narrowly missed other cars driving into the parking lot before coming to rest in the landscaping area on the other side," police officials said. "There were numerous people at the gas pumps and in the parking lot at the time of the collision, and they ran to try to help the occupants of the two vehicles."

Police said the driver of the Dodge will be prosecuted for driving without a valid driver's license after it was determined he had an expired Colorado license and no California license.

The incident blocked the entrance to Costco from Martin Avenue, as well as the westbound lanes of Martin Avenue, but Costco and the gas pumps remained open, police said.