Gunars Bundza returned today to his job as a parking attendant, three days after a woman in a canary yellow Mercedes crashed into him in the Bank of America rear lot.
“I heard a terrible noise, and my eyes must have gotten this big as I saw the lights on her Mercedes,” Bundza said today, his first day back on the job since the crash.
Bundza, who said he was 39 years old and holding, was standing at his lectern-like stand at 9:43 a.m. Monday when he saw the yellow car turn from East Coast Highway onto Marguerite, then into the lot of the bank at 3300 East Coast Highway. The driver, whom police said is 87 years old, pulled into a handicapped spot. Bundza looked away — then was hit.
He said the car hit a 100-pound metal umbrella stand, bending it and pushing it into the lectern, a parking sign and then a parking tire stop. Police said the woman suddenly accelerated as she parked.
The lectern and sign hit Bundza’s chest, and he fell back onto the pavement. His leg was hurt as well. An ambulance took him to Hoag Hospital, where he was x-rayed and examined.
“I’m very lucky to be alive,” he said.
When asked if he screamed or cried, Bundza said, ‘I’m a man. I can take a punch.”
When asked if he was afraid, Bundza said: “If you want to know how I feel, go home and stand in your driveway and have a friend run into you at 25 mph.”
As bank customers parked, they stopped to ask about his condition and to shake hands. Bundza, of Newport Beach, has held the job for almost 15 years, he said. He was happy to return to work after taking the two days’ off that doctors ordered.
“I have a good attitude,” he said. “I don’t take things too seriously.”
