Bob Guccione Jr., Woman Hurt When He Loses Control of Car

Bob Guccione Jr., editor and publisher of Spin magazine, was injured Monday when he sideswiped a car on an off-ramp of the Santa Ana Freeway, tore down a freeway sign and fence and smashed into another car in a parking lot, authorities said.

A passenger in Guccione’s rented 1989 Saab convertible suffered minor injuries. The California Highway Patrol identified her as Anita Rao of Los Angeles.

Guccione Jr., 34, told CHP officers that his brakes failed when he exited the freeway south at Red Hill Avenue at 10:25 a.m, a CHP spokesman said.

After sideswiping a car driven by a 29-year-old Anaheim woman, Guccione’s car crossed the intersection and tore down a freeway sign and a four-foot-high chain-link fence before smashing into a Nissan parked in a lot owned by Auto Mate Leasing.

The impact of the crash pushed the parked car into two other Nissans on the lot.

Auto Mate President Gay Cooper said Guccione emerged from his car bleeding from the head.

“Blood was just gushing heavily down his forehead,” Cooper said. “He said his brakes failed and he swerved at the intersection to avoid hitting another car.”

Rao, 28, came out of the car, “fell over and gripped her stomach,” Cooper said.

A second passenger, who was not identified, was uninjured. Neither Guccione nor Rao wore a seat belt, a CHP spokesman said. Both were treated at United Western Medical Center-Santa Ana.

Cooper estimated the damage to the three Nissans at $30,000.

The CHP spokesman said investigators were examining the brakes of Guccione’s vehicle. The car is owned by Showcase Rental Cars of Beverly Hills.

Guccione Jr., of Westport, Conn., owns Spin, a pop music magazine, and is the son of the owner of the Penthouse publishing empire.