HUNTINGTON BEACH : Driver, Passenger Injured in Accident

Two men were hospitalized Wednesday after a Fountain Valley man trying to make a U-turn in front of the spa business he owns collided with a pickup truck, police said.

“I didn’t see him,” said truck driver Luis Del Toro, 35, of Whittier. “There was no time to brake.”

Del Toro complained of pain in his chest but walked away from the 2:30 p.m. accident in the 15600 block of Computer Lane.

The spa owner, George Shotell Jr., 46, was airlifted to UCI Medical Center in Orange and listed in serious condition with possible abdominal injuries, a hospital spokeswoman said.

With the driver’s door to his Corvette smashed, Shotell was trapped briefly but an emergency team pried him free.

A passenger in Shotell’s car, Gonzalo Ortega, 41, of Santa Ana, was also in serious condition at UCI with head injuries. He is an employee of Shotell at Olympic Spa Covers Inc.

Shotell was parked by the curb directly in front of the Olympic Spa office and was on his way with Ortega to visit a new factory he recently bought in Fountain Valley, company officials said.

The company has its own parking lot, but Shotell preferred to park at the curb directly in front of the office entrance, said production manager Joe Bishop. “You gotta have the spot open--he gets mad if anyone parks there.”

Wednesday afternoon, Shotell prepared to make a U-turn from his parking spot and head north on Computer Lane, as he usually does, Bishop said. But this time, police said, he ran into the path of Del Toro’s truck.

No one was cited, said Officer Jim Austin.