Car crashes into salon

Marisa O’Neil

A car crashed through a busy, strip-mall nail salon Tuesday

afternoon, injuring eight people and leaving behind broken glass,

twisted metal and gaping holes in the walls of two other businesses.

The accident happened just after 2:30 p.m. when a white Mercedes

convertible was trying to pull into a parking spot inside a shopping

center at the corner of Bristol Street and Jamboree Road, Newport

Beach police Sgt. Bill Hartford said.

The car lurched forward, hopped a curb, clipped a cement pillar,

smashed through the front window of an empty business at an angle,

crashed through a wall into the Lovely Nails salon and came to a rest

with its nose just inside an adjacent beauty supply shop, fire

department spokeswoman Katie Freeman said.

“I came out for a break and heard something go, ‘Foosh!’ Then I

saw the back of the car fly through the window,” said Jodi Ross, who

works in a nearby Diedrich Coffee shop.

Two women were taken to local hospitals for minor injuries and six

more were treated by firefighters at the scene, Freeman said. None of

the injuries appeared to be serious, she said.

The crash took out at least five work stations, salon owner

Pauline Kim said.

Debris showered stunned customers and workers inside the salon,

said Evelyn Britton, who was getting a salon treatment when the

accident happened. Visibly shaken, she still wore a triage tag from

paramedics as her husband helped her to her car.

“All of a sudden the wall started flying,” Britton said. “I don’t

know if part of the wall hit me or the car, but it threw me to the

back of the store. We couldn’t tell who was hurt. Everyone was just

lifting everyone off the floor.”

Minutes after the accident, eight women sat on a curb just outside

the salon while firefighters interviewed them.

Some of the women appeared to be salon employees, wearing white

coats. Others, apparently customers, still had bare feet.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Kim, who was not in the salon at the

time of the accident. “We’re blessed nobody was seriously hurt.”

The Mercedes driver, 49-year-old Newport Beach resident Linda

Mongno, told police that the accelerator stuck as she was pulling

into the parking spot, Hartford said. Alcohol did not appear to be a

factor, and no citations were issued, he said.

The walls inside the building actually slowed the car, preventing

it from going further, Hartford said.

A large hole and twisted metal studs showed where the car blasted

through the wall of the empty business. The car came to a rest in the

middle of the salon, just behind the nail work station closest to the

front door.

The front end of the car broke through the opposite wall, knocking

over racks of beauty supplies. Shampoos and beauty products littered

the floor inside the shop.

Workers from the city’s building department gave approval for

firefighters to cut out large portions of the walls to remove the

car, Freeman said. The businesses would have to close down at least

for the rest of the day, she said.

* MARISA O’NEIL covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4618 or by e-mail at marisa.oneil @latimes.com.