Driver Crashes Car Into Law Office

A 78-year-old Oxnard woman escaped injury Thursday after she accidentally ran her car through the front door of the California Rural Legal Assistance office on B Street.

“It ended up in the middle of our lobby,” said Eileen McCarthy, staff attorney for CRLA, which provides legal aid to farm workers. “Our clock still says 11:50 a.m. because it came down in the accident.”

No one was injured inside the building, and the driver, Sabina Bucao, did not require medical attention, said Oxnard Police Officer Rick Kline. An unidentified passenger in Bucao’s car received minor injuries but was not hospitalized.

McCarthy said Bucao told police she was backing her Toyota out of a parking spot in front of the CRLA office when she quickly had to move back into the spot because of an approaching car.

“She apparently hit the accelerator too hard, hopped the curb and went into our building,” McCarthy said. “She was at least 8 feet inside our office.”

A CRLA employee, legal secretary Irma Avila, had been working at a desk near the office lobby half an hour before the accident, McCarthy said. That desk was smashed when Bucao’s car burst through the glass front door. Two glass side panels on either side of the door also were broken and the front of the building had to be boarded up.

McCarthy said damage to the building was in the thousands of dollars.

The office remained open Thursday but a night business meeting was canceled, McCarthy said. Normal business hours would resume today, she said.