An elderly woman was killed and six other people were injured Saturday when a 90-year-old woman visiting a relative at a San Jose nursing home accidentally crashed her car into an exercise room.

“She probably mistook the gas pedal for the brake,” San Jose police Sgt. Jason Dwyer said.

The dead woman was identified by the Santa Clara County Coroner’s Office late Saturday as Esther Bocanegra, 88.

Eric Chin, an activity leader at the Amberwood Gardens Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, was about to start his morning exercise class when the plate glass window broke into thousands of pieces.

“I turned around and saw this car in the room 10 feet from me,” Chin said. “You could hear glass breaking. A whole chunk of wall was gone. It was scary.”

Police were withholding the identities of the injured victims and the driver, who was not hurt, citing policy regarding traffic accidents and a need to first notify relatives. They were treating the matter as a tragic accident, and no charges were expected to be filed.

Dwyer said injuries to all but one of the six people hurt in the 9:45 a.m. crash were minor. The resident who suffered significant injuries was expected to survive, he said.

He said Bocanegra was struck by the car as it came through the room.

“She was a beautiful lady,” said Stephen Hooker, the director of the nursing home on Peterson Avenue. “My staff is just devastated by her passing and the way she passed. You’re just not prepared for a Saturday morning when someone drives a car through your window.”

Hooker said the driver was visiting a family member and parking her car when the vehicle suddenly hopped over a concrete parking block, lurched between two small trees and crashed through the exercise room.

The crash evoked a 2003 incident in which an 86-year-old motorist plowed his Buick through a crowd of pedestrians at a Santa Monica farmers market, killing 10 people, including a baby and a toddler. The accident sparked a national debate on elderly drivers.

The driver, George Weller, was convicted of vehicular manslaughter and sentenced to probation. But a push by some California lawmakers at the time to toughen restrictions on elderly motorists proved unsuccessful.

Hooker said the residents who were in the nursing home room at the time suffer from dementia. Their average age is 85. He said he was bringing a psychologist in Sunday to help the residents.

Chin said one person was knocked from a wheelchair and was found lying on a bloody floor.

“They weren’t really yelling,” Chin said of those in the room. “They were more in shock.”

He tried to calm them by playing an Elvis Presley CD and bringing in Daisy the dog, their resident pet therapist.

“It seemed like they calmed down a lot,” Chin said.

One staffer was among the injured. She was treated for minor injuries and released. Hooker didn’t identify her and said she declined to be interviewed.

The driver “was just in tears,” Chin said. “She was in shock, too. I feel bad for her.”

Kim Rentie of Visiting Angels, who works as a weekend caregiver for a 100-year-old resident she believes is among the injured, was in tears outside the center. She arrived after the incident and said she saw the woman’s sock and shoe.

“Her wheelchair was fully demolished,” Rentie said, wiping away tears. “Her shoe was full of blood.”

Rentie had arrived later than usual and was bringing cookies and apple pie to the woman she cares for and planning to take her out for a walk.

“I’m shaken to the core,” Rentie said. “If I’d have gotten up a little earlier, I’d have had her out of there.”

Contact John Woolfolk at 408-975-9346.

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