CORONA DEL MAR TODAY

A 41-year-old Newport Beach man could face charges of driving while intoxicated and leaving the scene of an accident after his SUV crashed several times along Coast Highway this morning, hitting signs, trees and a city bench before ending up inside the front doors of the Crystal Lotus psychic shop. Damage to the shop at 3100 East Coast Highway was about $75,000, fire officials said.

The incident occurred about 5:30 a.m. today when a man driving a 2009 Cadillac Escalade was driving westbound on East Coast Highway west of Marguerite Avenue, said Lt. Craig Fox of the Newport Beach Police Department. The man drove onto the sidewalk on the north side of Coast Highway, hitting a sign, a tree and a planter in front of Directors Financial Group at 3242 East Coast Highway.

“He then reentered PCH westbound, and a few blocks later, left the roadway again onto the north sidewalk of PCH, this time colliding with a sign, tree, and the (Crystal Lotus) building,” Fox said.

The driver denied he was injured and did not want to be taken to a hospital, said Jennifer Schulz of the Newport Beach Fire Department. The man was arrested at the scene, Fox said, on suspicion of DUI. He could face hit-and-run charges because he left the scene of the initial crash into the sign and planter box.

East Coast Highway was closed northbound for more than an hour between Marguerite and Jasmine avenues. City engineers arrived at 5:45 to inspect the building, said Tara Finnigan, a Newport Beach spokeswoman.

“The building was posted ‘yellow” with restrictions to stay away from the broken store front glass, with no other hazard,” she said.

The black vehicle was about a quarter of the way into the building; crews pulled it out and towed it, and fire crews helped remove debris and a city bench.

“After the vehicle was removed, we installed a spot shore to help support a structural, load-bearing beam,” Schulz said.

The building’s owner arrived, and a private company was hired to clean up and secure the property.

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An apparently out-of-control Escalade smashed through the front doors of Crystal Lotus about 5:30 a.m today, creating a Sigalert for northbound Coast Highway that ended just minutes ago.

The crash appeared to be an accident, but police did not immediately provide details. Afterward, the driver apparently tried to back the car out of the front door, witnesses told Corona del Mar Today.

The Sigalert closed East Coast Highway to northbound traffic between Marguerite and Jasmine avenues. The lanes reopened at 7 a.m.

Witnesses said they saw the man driving on Marguerite Avenue prior to the crash, taking out some other signs and hitting a tree. A city parking sign was on the sidewalk about 100 yards away on the sidewalk. A lot of residents heard the crash, but didn’t see anything until they went to investigate and saw the car stuck in the damaged building and police cars filling the streets.

Crystal Lotus opened in April, with signs in the window advertising soulmate and past life readings. The owners have declined several interview requests.

See an earlier reader photo of the driver being checked out by fire crews here.

Tips and earlier photos courtesy of Corona del Today reader Nik. Thank you!

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While watching a safety presentation at a task force meeting on Monday, City Councilwoman and bicycle enthusiast Nancy Gardner had an Ah ha! moment.

“The thing that struck me — and I’m a very casual rider — is that I’m causing a lot of the problems,” she said. “People like me need to drive more seriously.”

The 30-minute presentation examined ways that bicyclists put themselves in danger, including riding against traffic and not being careful at driveways. The presentation, given by Brian DeSousa of the Orange County Bicycle Coalition, also showed that cyclists sometimes have the right to move into the center of a traffic lane — even if it slows down motorists behind them.

“So how do we train our bicyclists in Newport Beach,” asked Frank Peters of Corona del Mar, a member of the Newport Beach Task Force of Cycling Safety.

“It takes a generation,” replied Pete van Nuys, another Coalition board member. “It’s nothing that happens quickly. Bicyclists are a minority, but the majority needs to get with it.”

The group discussed how to approach cycling safety education, both with police and with the public, as well as the Idaho state law that says cyclists can treat all stop signs as yield signs. “That’s interesting!” Gardner said — but then was told that it was very unlikely ever to become law in California.

(DeSousa’s presentation used information included here; another, shorter presentation can be seen here.)

After the presentation and discussion, Gardner reminded the group that they would have only three more meetings before they disbanded. (Gardner suggested the creation of a task force last fall, in response to several cycling accidents including a fatality; it was approved as a short-term group that would meet only until March.)

“We need a very rough draft of an outline of something to present to Council,” she said. She added that she would draft the outline before the next meeting. The Council will receive the task force report, with supporting documents, and then can direct staff to follow up on elements that could be implemented.

Education and outreach, a sharrow, or shared lane for cycles and motorists, possibly in Corona del Mar, the need for bike racks and an ongoing requirement for new businesses to include racks in their plans, bike maps and other elements all will be included.

“I think they’ll be very positive,” Gardner told the task force members.

The next meeting will be held at 4:30 p.m. Monday Feb. 22.

Read our earlier stories here, here and here.

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Corona del Mar High School Girls’ Varsity soccer team will play its final home game at 3:15 Tuesday, school sources said.

The game will be the senior game, where the team will honor the seven members who are seniors. The game pits Corona del Mar against the first-place Beckman team.

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More than three hours after two workers were stranded, dangling from a medical building at 1401 Avocado Avenue, crews were able to remove the scaffolding that malfunctioned on Monday morning.

“Once the victims were safe, firefighters assisted in lowering the scaffolding to safety utilizing a high angle rope rescue technique,” said Jennifer Schulz, a Newport Beach Fire Department spokeswoman. “Firefighters harnessed a representative from the company that owned the scaffolding and lowered him to the inoperable equipment.”

He was then able to lower the scaffolding to the ground, she said. The men were stranded at 10:45 a.m., and the scaffolding was on the ground by 2 p.m.

A total of 22 firefighters from Newport Beach and Costa Mesa responded, Schulz said, along with Newport Beach police. Avocado Avenue was closed briefly between San Miguel and San Nicolas drives.

Read our earlier story — including interviews with the two rescued men — here.

Photos courtesy of the Newport Beach Fire Department.

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Rainy weather over the weekend caused a city-owned tree to fall onto a home in the 700 block of Heliotrope Avenue, police reports state. The tree fell just before 7 a.m. Saturday, causing $5,000 in damage, police said. By Monday morning, crews had removed most of the tree, and a blue tarp covered much of the roof of the home.

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A 26-year-old Laguna Beach man was arrested on suspicion of possession of narcotics just before midnight Friday, police records show. The arrest occurred at East Coast Highway and Los Trancos near Crystal Cove State Park. The man’s bail was set at $20,000.

Police made two DUI arrests in the Corona del Mar area on Sunday. A 40-year-old Laguna Beach man was arrested at 8:50 p.m. at East Coast Highway and Pelican Point Drive; his bail was set at $10,000. And a 46-year-old Irvine man was arrested at 10:50 p.m. at San Miguel Drive and MacArthur Boulevard; his bail was set at $2,500.

A 28-year-old Costa Mesa man was arrested at 1:40 a.m. Sunday at Iris and First avenues on suspicion of disorderly conduct while intoxicated; his bail was set at $500.

Since Friday, police made more than a dozen alcohol-related arrests throughout Newport Beach, records show.

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Two men were left dangling by harnesses from the side of a medical building on Avocado Avenue when their scaffolding’s motor malfunctioned just after 10:30 a.m. today. The men were quickly rescued.

“I was grateful the harness was doing its job,” said Mark Dunn, 44, of Irvine. “We were very, very lucky.”

The other worker, Wes Malone, 27, of Huntington Beach, said they were in their second week of work on the building at 1401 Avocado Avenue, repairing leaks from January storms that flooded the building’s stairwells.

“It was just run of the mill, getting ready for the day’s work,” he said.

Dunn said they set up the scaffolding, then went to between the eighth and ninth floors. “We work our way down from the top,” he said.

But when he pressed the button to stop the motor, Malone’s side stopped. “My side continued to go,” he said.

He used the emergency switch, stopping them, then they called for help. They then tried to power it back up, the motor didn’t respond. Finally, Malone said he released the emergency switch to try to lower the scaffold to the ground — but only one side moved.

“The left went down, the safety harnesses caught us, and we were hanging by a rope,” he said.

Minutes later, firefighters and maintenance workers were on the roof, hoisting the men, one-by-one, to safety. The firefighters were in the building on an unrelated call, said Jennifer Schulz, a Newport Beach Fire Department spokeswoman, and the men were dangling for only a few minutes.

Fire department crews checked them out, the men said, and they were fine and considering going back to work. Fire crews were waiting to see if they needed to assist taking down the scaffolding, which was hanging from the building on the Avocado side of the street for more than an hour.

Avocado Avenue was closed between San Miguel and San Nicolas drives during the event as a safety precaution.

Workers from the medical offices stopped to talk to the men, who were in the parking lot taking phone calls from friends and family members.

“It was pretty up there,” Dunn said.

Mark Dunn, left, and Wes Malone, were rescued Monday morning from the side of a medical building.

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