A quiet nap time at a Glendale preschool turned into a genuine nightmare this week when a 79-year-old woman drove her car through a fence, into a parked vehicle, and straight through the wall of a classroom where young children were sleeping. Eight children were injured in the crash at Grandview House Preschool, according to KTLA. The good news, and there is good news here, is that all of the children are expected to be okay and were back home with their families by that evening.
According to KTLA 5, the driver was attempting a U-turn when she mistook the gas pedal for the brake, sending her vehicle careening through a fence and into the preschool wall. It is the kind of split-second mix-up that happens more often than any of us would like to admit, but the consequences here could have been catastrophic. Instead, thanks to a mix of luck and one very quick-thinking neighbor, this story has a far better ending than it easily could have.
That neighbor, identified as Mehmood Hijab, was in his own backyard when he heard the crash. He did not hesitate. He jumped the fence separating the properties and ran straight toward the wreckage, where he found children still buried under debris from the collapsed wall. Despite having asthma and struggling to breathe through the dust, he kept going. He also found the elderly driver still trapped in her car and helped get her out.
There is a version of this story where nobody was close enough to help, or where the person next door decided this was a problem for the professionals to handle once they arrived. That is not what happened in Glendale, and the community is right to be grateful for it.
A Neighbor Who Didn’t Think Twice
Hijab has four children of his own, and by his family’s account, that made the decision easy rather than harder. His daughter said he never hesitated, despite the danger and the physical toll of pushing through dust and debris with breathing issues of his own. It is worth pausing on that for a second.
Plenty of people freeze in emergencies, and nobody would have blamed a bystander for waiting on first responders. Instead, Glendale got a guy who treated other people’s kids like they were his own, which is about as good a definition of a good neighbor as you will find.
One staff member at the school, whose friend works there, admitted her first fear was that this had been a targeted attack rather than an accident, especially given rising concerns about antisemitism, since the preschool sits on the same property as Temple Sinai of Glendale. That fear turned out to be unfounded here, but it says something sobering about the world we are living in that a car crash immediately raises that possibility in someone’s mind.
No Signs of Impairment, Investigation Continues
As for the driver, she was released from the scene, and police say drugs and alcohol do not appear to have played a role in the crash. This looks, at this point, like a tragic pedal mix-up rather than anything more sinister.
It is a reminder that age alone is not the whole story with driving safety, but pedal confusion is a real and well-documented issue, especially among older drivers, and it is worth a conversation with aging family members before it becomes a headline in your own town.
For now, the kids are home, the neighbor is being called a hero for good reason, and Glendale gets to breathe a little easier tonight.