Luxury SUV Crashes Into Melrose Cemetery, Damaging Several Headstones

MELROSE, MA — A Melrose woman with a learner’s permit crashed into eight headstones at a cemetery over the weekend, damaging several of them, police said.

The 53-year-old driver was practicing her driving with a relative around 2:30 p.m. Saturday when she crashed into headstones at Wyoming Cemetery, police said.

Officers found an older model Range Rover and eight toppled headstones. The two occupants were unharmed. Several headstones sustained damage.

Members of the public works department have since up-righted the headstones.

A preliminary investigation indicated the woman lost control of the SUV, causing it to crash into the headstones.

Lt. David Mackey told The Boston Globe the woman mistook the gas pedal for the brake.

“No crime involved, just an unfortunate accident with a considerable amount of damage,” Mackey told the newspaper. “It was an older woman who just never learned to drive, apparently just recently got her permit, and probably shouldn’t have.”