Drivers who mistake the gas pedal for the brake can cause terrible damage when head-on parking spaces are immediately outside a storefront. Cars have crashed through several storefronts, injuring customers inside, according to Nassau County Legislator Judy Jacobs.

To prevent these kinds of tragedies, Legislator Jacobs has filed legislation which would require any new storefront construction to include curbside barriers where vehicles are not parked parallel to the curb. Dubbed "the barrier bill," the legislation would require that when someone constructs a building in the future, and if there are parking spaces in the front of the building that face the building, then there will have to be some kind of barriers installed at the curb.

"This legislation would take some practical and cost effective steps to protect business owners and their customers from vehicles that, for whatever reason, lurch forward from their parking spaces and break through store front windows."

In 1995 a car crashed through a Plainview Dunkin' Donuts on Old Country Road. The driver suffered facial cuts while a patron was critically injured. The driver had pulled into the lot, and for unknown reasons, continued on, smashing through the glass storefront and into the counter. As a result, the owner has since installed cement posts to serve as a barrier.

"I would prefer to see all businesses which have head-on parking outside the storefront have some kind of barrier, but the cost would be prohibitive and unfair to shopkeepers. I would encourage places which have this kind of parking to take steps to protect their customers. I think the 'Barrier Bill' is a step in the right direction."