Not a corner fit for a king

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- When Mary Louise Phillips heard the crash right

around 2:28 p.m. Friday, she went outside her Heather Lane home to see

what was happening.

What Phillips found was a brown Lexus that had crashed through the

wall that protects her garden on the corner of Heather Lane and Irvine

Avenue. A large pine tree had stopped the vehicle on its path to the

house, but only the trunk remained on the sidewalk. The rest of the car

now rested inside the garden.

While some might have suffered a shock from the scenario, Phillips was

able to shrug it off. Friday’s accident marked the eighth time her wall

had been crashed into since Phillips moved into her home in 1960.

While it hasn’t always been the exact same spot, the corner is

especially prone to breakthroughs, she said.

“We reinforced it, but it’s not a very easy thing to do,” she said,

adding that her previous insurance company had canceled her policy after

the sixth crash.

The driver did not have any visible injuries except for a cut to his

right hand, possibly inflicted by the deployment of an air bag. Before

paramedics transported the unidentified man to Hoag Hospital for further

examination, he told Dave White, an officer with the Newport Beach police

department, what had happened.

Driving southbound on Irvine Avenue, he hit the curb, White recounted,

and then clipped a city light pole on the northern corner of Heather and

Irvine. The front tire blew, the Lexus became airborne and crashed

through the wall on the other side of the street.

While the car’s engine got completely smashed by the impact and parts

of the wall broke the windshield, the glass didn’t shatter. The passenger

compartment seemed to have almost no damage at all.

Back in her living room, Phillips said she hadn’t yet called anyone to

come fix the wall. Instead, she’d invited her neighbor, Vic Berry, over

for a game of King’s Corner.

After all, she’d not been hurt and the corner outside could wait a

while.

“We’re very fortunate,” she said and returned to her deck of cards.