CAR VEERS OFF FREEWAY, LANDS IN CAR DEALERSHP—AGAIN

East County Magazine News Service

October 17, 2011 (El Cajon) – For the second time in less than a month, a car lost control on an East County freeway and crashed into an East County car dealership. Around 2:15 p.m. yesterday, a Honda Civic ran off I-8, severely damaging a pickup truck at Carl Burger Dodge in La Mesa.

Stephen Proctor of El Cajon had just returned from test-driving a vehicle when he witnessed the crash. In an interview with East County Magazine, Proctor saw he saw the car “just racing through the dealership at like 70 mph…He hit a wall and then started pinging off cars.” He added, “I know he totaled his car and did some pretty substantial damage to a truck that he hit first.”

Proctor said he saw the driver with a backpack, adding that the man was looking for his cell phone. “He said he was talking on the phone; somehow he dropped it and when he went to pick up the phone, he wound up in the dealership.”

The driver asked to use a restroom at the dealership. Afterward “a digital scale used for weighing drugs” was found in the trash can, Proctor said, though it’s not clear whether the driver stashed the item in the trash.

CHP and La Mesa Police were called to the scene, along with paramedics.

No one was injured by the runaway driver. But Proctor reflects, “He could very easily have ended up killing somebody. A salesman was right behind the [vehicle] that got ploughed.”

Just three weeks ago, on September 22, a vehicle veered off Highway 94 and plunged down onto several vehicles at Bob Baker Toyota in Lemon Grove. The driver in that incident told police he swerved to avoid hitting another car. There were no injuries.