Posted on: Friday, March 4, 2005
Customer, driver badly hurt when car plows into salon
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
Stunned customers of a Wai'alae beauty salon could only watch as a car smashed through the shop yesterday, seriously injuring a woman and narrowly missing a small child.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser The child suffered minor injuries but was taken to Queen's in stable condition to be checked out, said police Lt. Alex Ahlo. There were no other reported injuries.
Holly Meyer was chatting with her hairdresser outside the front door of Images Hair Design when she saw a white Toyota Corolla about 50 feet away.
"The guy stepped on the gas and I saw him coming straight at us," Meyer said. "I don't know why but he veered to the right."
Seconds later, the car shot past Meyer and her hairdresser and plowed into the beauty salon at Kahala Square, 4218 Wai'alae Ave. The car hit a 62-year-old woman who was seated with her back to the storefront window and knocked her across the room. Miraculously, the car missed a 2-year-old boy playing on the floor in front of the woman.
"Lucky nobody got killed," police officer Alex Duyag, the investigating officer, said of the 12:04 p.m. crash. Duyag said the driver, possibly as a result of a "medical condition," accelerated the car about 50 feet from the end of the Kahala Square driveway.
Meyer said the car "just shot up over the curb and through the window. ... I really feel bad for the woman who got hit. The bumper of the car hit her in the back. I don't think she knew what hit her. She landed in front of the car, 10 to 12 feet from where she was sitting."
Meyer rushed over to attend to the driver. "He was disoriented and glassy-eyed," she said, describing him as "an older man."
"I asked him if he was OK," she added, noting that he could not speak. "It looks like he might have had a heart attack or diabetic seizure, something like that."
No one working at the business would comment yesterday. The Kahala Square property is managed by Colliers Monroe Friedlander Management Inc.
Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.
The woman customer and the man driving the car were taken in serious condition to The Queen's Medical Center, according to emergency workers.
Tow truck driver James Macloves prepares to remove a car that crashed through a plate-glass window and into Images Hair Design in Kahala. Police said the crash could have stemmed from a possible "medical condition" that might have overcome the driver.
After the crash, the child crawled out from under the car, Meyer said. "He was cut from glass," she said.
