Shhh! 7-Car Accident At Library Not Conducive To Quiet Reading

No truth to rumors that drunken Bookmobile driver is to blame

It's summertime, school is out, and kids everywhere are being shipped off to the library to enrich their minds with . . . the sounds of a seven-car pileup in the parking lot? In Norwood, Massachusetts, it appears that just such an unusual soundtrack enlivened Monday morning's reading activities.

What could cause such carnage at the local library? Was everyone rushing to be the first to browse the August issue of National Geographic? Is there an eighth Harry Potter book hitting shelves that we never knew about, perhaps?

Actually, no. It appears, according to the Daily News Transcript, that an 81-year-old library patron smashed into 6 other cars all by himself on his way out of the lot. He must have had some killer summer beach novels that he simply had to get home and start in on right away. Or, it could be that, as the driver claims, he simply accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake, accelerating into a row of cars as a result.
Police say that they have turned the matter over to the Registry of Motor Vehicles, and that while no criminal charges were being reported, the RMV might revoke the man's driver's license. At least a few library staffers, several of whose cars were among the casualties, will no doubt be lobbying for a similar revocation of his library card.

But perhaps those librarians should not be too bitter. After all, they do have, right at hand, an invaluable free resource to help them through this trying time.  Let's see . . . here it is: Automobile Repair, Dewey Decimal subject number 629.987.