Salon gets its own truck crash

With its façade still covered by plywood almost a week after a pick-up truck smashed into the front of the shop, destroying its entry and breaking a window, Melody Nails salon on the 900 block of Foothill Boulevard is back in business, with clients and staffers using the rear entrance.

In an incident that salon employees said raised memories of the fatal April 2009 runaway truck crash in La Cañada, a pick-up truck collided with a car at about 3 p.m. on Friday, went out of control and crashed into the front of the nail salon. No serious injuries were reported.

The truck collided with the vehicle in front of it while westbound on Foothill Boulevard, according to Sgt. Randy Tuinstra of the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station. It then veered southward across the boulevard, jumped a median, struck a tree and smashed into the front of the salon.

Julie Ta, an employee of the salon, said that she was working with a customer who was seated in the salon’s front chair when she heard a loud crack. On looking up, Ta saw the truck heading over the median toward the shop before smashing through the salon’s front wall.

Melody Nails’ landlord, Leonard Totta, said the proprietors of the salon told him the truck had hopped the median and advanced on the salon like it was in “slow motion,” without stopping or slowing before the collision. Totta said the driver was a man who was taken out of the vehicle on a stretcher.

According to Tuinstra, the injuries sustained by the unidentified driver were minor.

Phuong Duong, the salon’s owner, was back at work in the boarded up shop on Tuesday. She said that Totta was handling repairs.

Tuinstra said the cause of the accident remains under investigation.

Melody Nails is adjacent to the former home of the Flintridge Bookstore, which was where the runaway truck came to rest back in 2009. Totta said he was thankful that no one in the salon was hurt either time.

“We’ve gotten lucky twice,” Totta said. “We’ve dodged the bullet twice.”