Driverless car crashes into elderly man on bench

 

An 82-year-old man suffered serious injuries Thursday when an unoccupied car rolled out of a convenience store parking lot in Alpine and crashed through the nearby bus stop where he was sitting.

The 1996 Volkswagen Jetta began rolling through the lot at Tavern Road and Alpine Boulevard about 11 a.m., shortly after the driver pulled up to a gas pump at the Circle K and got out to pay the clerk, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The runaway sedan rolled down a driveway and over a curb, then smashed into the bench on which Alpine resident Sidney Griffin was seated, CHP public- affairs Officer Brian Pennings said. The car came to a stop in the adjacent roadway, with Griffin underneath it.

Medics took the victim to Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, where he was admitted in serious but stable condition, Pennings said.

It was not immediately clear why the vehicle began rolling on its own.