Truck Jumps Curb, Hits Boy, Smashes Apartment

A truck driven by a Huntington Beach man hit an 8-year-old boy on a bicycle after the driver lost control, jumped a curb, and then plowed into the kitchen of an apartment and bounced to a stop at the adjacent house.

Huntington Beach Police Sgt. Guy Dove said the driver, Dan Stellrecht, 40, may have had a heart attack just before the crash.

Stellrecht was taken to UCI Medical Center where he was hooked up to a cardiac monitor, according to nursing supervisor Jean Necas. He was in serious but stable condition late Sunday.

“It takes about 24 hours to check if he had a heart attack,” Necas said.

Police did not identify the boy, who was treated for multiple scrapes and bruises at Huntington Beach Hospital and sent home.

Four gas lines were severed when Stellrecht rammed into Claudia Angelici’s apartment and the block was temporarily evacuated, according to police.

“The cable system was also knocked out so there are some angry people missing the football game,” Dove said.

The most damage was done to Angelici’s kitchen, which had recently undergone more than $10,000 in renovations.

“If she’d been standing anywhere in her kitchen, she could’ve been killed,” said Tom Emerling of Anaheim, a friend of Angelici.

Angelici stared dejectedly at what’s left of the handiwork: wooden cabinet shards splayed all over her front lawn and a gaping hole left in her apartment.

“It’s just stuff,” she said, picking up a colorful but broken plate, Italian pottery she brought back from a recent 10-day bike trip to Italy. “Maybe I’ll make a mosaic table.”

Police are investigating the accident.