By RUSS OLIVO

WOONSOCKET — You may not have much faith in advertising slogans, but Cumberland Farms lived up to its billing as the stop that keeps you going Saturday night.

At least that's what one inexperienced motorist did when she drove into the parking lot of the South Main Street store about 9:40 p.m., police said. Believing she had hit the brakes, the 15-year-old girl mistakenly depressed the gas pedal and kept going right through the brick and glass facade of the store.
Police said the accident happened when a Massachusetts man allowed a relative to drive his 2006 Pontiac Vibe without a license. Thomas M. Gibbons, 49, of North Attleboro, told police he was giving the girl a driving lesson when she lost control of the vehicle.
Police arrested Gibbons on one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor for knowingly allowing an unlicensed person to drive, they said. The girl, meanwhile, was given a traffic citation for driving without a license.
Gibbons told police he had allowed the girl to drive from Globe Park School, about a quarter mile away, before they arrived at the convenience store. There were numerous  customers inside the store at the time of the crash, but no one was harmed, police said.
Everyone except for a couple of cashiers who witnessed the crash scattered before police arrived. The cashiers told police they had seen the girl behind the wheel and Gibbons getting out on the passenger side when the car came crashing through the store.
Police said there was “significant damage” to the brick facade and the display windows of the store, but there was no estimate of the loss in police reports.
It wasn't the first time in the city that driver education classes have come to a disastrous conclusion, in a bricks-and-mortar sort of way. Last April, a 49-year-old Providence woman was performing a road test to qualify for her driver's license when she plowed through the facade of the now-defunct Sunrise Bagel shop on Social Street. The woman, who also hit the accelerator instead of the brake when she meant to stop, was not cited by the police because she had a valid learner's permit.
There were at least a dozen customers in the once-popular breakfast nook at the time, but the only person injured was the driver, who was treated for minor injuries.