By PATRICK KINMARTIN Special to the Daily Press
A man test driving a new SUV plowed into a Toyota on Tuesday, injuring an elderly couple in Santa Monica Canyon.
The 32-year-old man taking a test drive in an Infiniti FX 45 with a salesman lost control of the vehicle while going up Entrada Street before he slammed on the emergency brake, sending him screeching into the left side of the oncoming Toyota.
The couple, both believed to be in their 70s, was taken away in an ambulance and treated for minor injuries, said Officer Jerry Post of the Los Angeles Police Department.
The test driver of the car told Post he was trying to brake as he began to make the sharp turn up the hill, but his sandal got caught and touched down on the accelerator.
“He just fish tailed into the opposite lane and then ‘boom!’ — right into the side of the car,” said Mark Landay, who saw the collision from the second story of his nearby house. “It’s amazing though, ‘cause had he hit them a split second later, he would have smashed into the driver-side door and killed them.”
Airbags in both cars were released during the accident. The driver of the SUV and the salesman in the passenger’s seat walked away from the scene uninjured.
Post said the sticker price of the vehicle, which was from Advantage Infiniti in Santa Monica, was $47,000. He also said one of the tow truck drivers at the scene told him it was the third time in a week an FX 45 from the dealership has crashed on a test drive. Officials from the dealership declined to comment.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 13, 2003. Read the original PDF.