Photo | WEHOonline
A car jumped the curb and plowed into a landscaped retaining wall outside Great Earth Vitamin & Herb Earth Bar in the shopping plaza between Flores Street and Kings Road on Santa Monica Boulevard Sunday afternoon. No one was hurt.
Driver George Soto told WEHOonline he was stopped at the red light at Kings Road, waiting to turn onto Santa Monica Boulevard, when the car took off before the signal even changed. “I felt the car accelerating, and I tried to break, and it wouldn’t stop,” Soto said. “And it kept going, and the minute I tried to break, it accelerated more. And I couldn’t go straight, so I thought I’d turn, and this is where I came to.”
Soto’s passenger, Jeremy, said the same thing happened when Soto reached for the pedal. “He tried to press the brake, he said, ‘I’m pressing the brake,’” Jeremy said. “The car just took off. It got possessed and did its own thing.
A West Hollywood sheriff’s deputy on scene told WEHOonline it was a straightforward call. “It’s just a traffic collision, as you can see the car crashed into the shrubbery,” the deputy said. “There were no injuries reported. Nothing criminal.”
Friends reunited after 18 years
Soto no longer lives in West Hollywood. He was in town for five days visiting a friend he hadn’t seen in nearly two decades. The two had just finished lunch at Marix Tex Mex when the crash happened. “We haven’t seen each other in about 18 years,” Soto said. “I’m here for five days, and it’s such an interruption.”
Photo | WEHOonline
A friend who had been at lunch with Soto said the group had gone their separate ways when he spotted police cars nearby and didn’t immediately connect them to his friend. Soto called him minutes later and told him what happened.
Soto and his passenger were shaken but said they were otherwise fine. The car came to rest against the low wall and landscaping in front of the storefronts, its front bumper hanging loose, before a Hollywood Tow truck pulled it from the plaza.