“It was like fireworks. Lots of glass shattering and flying everywhere,” said EZ-Rent-A-Car owner Natasha Salah. “It happened so fast, even if everyone was yelling at her it would have been hard to hear.”
Salah stepped away from her desk seconds before the car smashed through the company’s window and plowed over her desk and other furniture.
“That must have been destiny,” she said. “I would’ve been gone. They’d have to peel me out by pieces.”
The car pushed much of Salah’s desk out onto the sidewalk edging Adams Avenue. Mounds of broken window glass blanketed the car and the company’s floor. Firefighters said there was no significant structural damage to the building.
EZ-Rent-A-Car moved into the location less than three months ago and was planning to shoot a commercial there on Friday, Salah said.
“Everything will have to be redone again,” she said.
Witnesses said the accident started off with a simple act of kindness by a man working at his wife’s nail salon next door to Salah’s business.
As Hall steered her car right, into the parking spot next to KD Nails she was planning to visit, the salon owner’s husband, Paul Dao, stopped her. Dao offered to take her walker out of the back seat for her, he said. When Dao closed the car door, walker in hand, Hall was supposed to roll into the spot and stop. Instead, “Woosh! She was gone,” Dao said. “I was really scared when that happened.”
Hall was uninjured and looked forward to getting her nails done later that day, she said. The car had minor damage and Hall’s husband drove the couple home.
She was not cited since the accident happened on private property but police recommended to the DMV that she take a driver’s test in the next five business days.
JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.
