DANVERS — The 93-year-old man behind the wheel of a Toyota that slammed through the front of a Walmart in June told police that in the moments before the crash, he was "mad" about the handicapped parking spaces all being full.
Louis Vesprini also surmised to police that he must have stepped on the gas instead of the brakes to have ended up inside the store.
Those are some of the new details about the June 2 crash that emerged from court papers released yesterday, a day after a Salem District Court assistant clerk-magistrate found probable cause for a criminal charge of negligent driving to endanger to be issued against Vesprini. He lives with his wife, Lena, at Brooksby Village, a Peabody retirement community that is adjacent to the Danvers Walmart on Route 114.
Police had initially cited Vesprini in July, following the completion of an investigation, but Vesprini immediately appealed the citation to a clerk-magistrate. The clerk denied the appeal and allowed the case to move forward to arraignment following Thursday's hearing.
Vesprini is scheduled to be arraigned on the charge Oct. 14. The charge carries a maximum penalty of two years in jail.
Vesprini would also be facing a mandatory 60-day license suspension, but the Registry of Motor Vehicles has already revoked his license as an immediate threat to public safety.
The crash injured a Gloucester mother, Alaina Hayes, 25, and her 1-year-old daughter, Makayla, who has had to undergo repeated surgery to repair injuries to her face and head.
The Hayes family has filed a lawsuit against Vesprini, and their attorney, Barry Feinstein of Peabody, attended Thursday's hearing on behalf of his clients. He said Alaina Hayes was not feeling well enough to attend.
It was also one of a string of serious crashes recently involving elderly drivers in Massachusetts, a situation that has led to calls for mandatory retesting of drivers in their advanced years.
According to police reports that are now part of the court file, police found Vesprini's 1998 Toyota Camry about 40 feet inside the store.
Hayes and her daughter had been leaving, Makayla strapped into an infant seat, when Vesprini's car went between two pillars outside the store and through the exit door, striking the mother and daughter and then continuing on, further into the store.
When police arrived, they found Vesprini and his wife still inside the car. Vesprini had taken the key out of the ignition and was holding it in his hand.
Vesprini immediately told police that he had been looking for a handicapped space. His wife, Lena, 90, added that her husband then decided to drop her off in front of the store, and then, "all of a sudden the vehicle was in the store," she told officers.
"I must have hit the gas pedal by mistake," Vesprini said.
He also told an officer that he had been looking for a handicapped space but that all of the spaces were full and that he was mad about that.
Vesprini insisted that he and his wife did not need medical attention, as they had been wearing seat belts. Eventually, police convinced him that they should go to the Lahey Clinic to be evaluated.
Police subsequently looked at surveillance video, which showed Hayes and her daughter leaving the store.
Police say the tape shows how Vesprini's car came from the parking lot aisle directly across from the front exit, accelerated, drove through two red posts at a crosswalk, through the exit door, and into Hayes and her daughter. The car then continued forward, striking carriages and then the second cash register in a row of registers.
In addition to the serious injuries to Hayes and her daughter, the crash destroyed the two metal pillars, the exit doors and a security detector, and moved the register out of the row.
After the crash, police spoke with the driver's son, Robert, who told them that he had just spoken with his father and that they had agreed the older man would stop driving. Police told the son that they had already filed a report with the Registry asking that Vesprini's license be suspended immediately.
