By Cam Lucadou-Wells
CLINICIANS at a Hampton Park medical precinct say footpath bollards are needed after a car mounted a parking area’s kerb and ploughed into a pharmacy’s display window.
The large four-by-three metre window was shattered and shelving pushed across the shop floor by the vehicle at Nova Pharmacy off Stuart Avenue shortly before 7am on Monday 17 October.
A 46-year-old Hampton Park woman is expected to receive a summons for careless driving, a Victoria Police spokeswoman said.
Olivera Doder, manager of the neighbouring Southern Cross Medical Centre, heard the impact as she arrived at work.
Ms Doder said the middle-aged driver was shaken but not injured by the crash.
It seemed the driver had pressed the accelerator instead of the brake, but was unable to explain what happened.
“She was just coming in to have a blood test this morning.”
Ninety-degree parking spots are separated from the pharmacy and neighbouring clinics by just two metres of paved footpath.
Julie from of the adjoining Dorevitch Pathology said pedestrians and patients needed to be protected by bollards.
She said two vehicles had crashed into her clinic.
Pharmacist Greg Clements said it had been 15 years since a similar crash into the pharmacy, but backed a call for protective bollards.
Mr Clements said the damaged window was expected to be secured some time that day.
Casey council stated the issue of installing bollards was a matter for the site’s owner.
Chief executive Mike Tyler said the council took into account Australian Standards design guidelines when it planned and approved parking areas next to a footpath.
“Bollards are not typically required to be installed to separate parking bays from a footpath,” he said.
