Auto ventures into travel agency

Marisa O’Neil

Employees at a Westcliff Plaza travel agency may need a vacation of

their own after a car smashed through their front window Friday

afternoon.

A beige Saturn driven by an elderly woman hopped a curb just after

3 p.m., smashed a large planter, mangled a metal bench and landed

inside the Flight Centre travel agency, shattering the window and

crushing a desk. The woman was not injured, and a customer and

employees inside the shop at the time also escaped injury.

“We were just sitting there, and it cruised right in,” employee

Andy Schwartze said of the car.

Seconds before the crash, Schwartze was only feet from where the

car came to rest, he said. He and the customer scurried out of the

way.

An employee who normally sits at the front desk -- which was

crushed, wedging a black office chair behind it -- is on vacation in

Tahiti, he said.

Newport Beach police did not identify the driver.

Firefighters checked the structural integrity of the shop and

declared it safe, Newport Beach fire spokeswoman Jennifer Schulz

said.

The aftermath of the crash drew numerous onlookers, especially

from the Starbucks next door.

Newport Beach resident Ed Karagozian was in line for coffee when

he heard the crash.

“All I heard was this big bang. Then I came out and saw this,” he

said, gesturing to the damaged planter and bench. “I thought, ‘What

the heck happened?’”

On further inspection, he said, he saw the car all the way inside

the shop, with its rear tires at the threshold. A postal employee,

who happened to be nearby, went up to the car’s driver and told her

to turn off the car, Karagozian said.

The woman seemed very shaken, Schwartze said.

The wayward car narrowly missed a group of outdoor tables and

chairs sitting on a large sidewalk in front of the Starbucks. Only a

small curb separates the sidewalk from perpendicularly-parked cars.

Passersby said they weren’t surprised by the accident.

“We come here a lot, and we’ve always said they should put cement

posts there,” Newport Heights resident David Goldstein said. “This is

a very busy shopping center.”