Driver Killed as Car Smashes Into Side of Motel : Woman Lodger Escapes Injury as Two of Room’s Walls Cave In Around Her

A 37-year-old man was killed almost instantly Sunday when his car rammed into the side of the Smoke Tree Inn in San Clemente, but a woman staying at the motel escaped injury even though two of her room’s walls caved in around her.

The driver of the car was not identified pending identification of relatives.

The woman, whose name was not available, suffered a minor bruise when the gold Plymouth Barracuda barreled into her roadside room about midnight.

Chandulal M. Brahmbhatt, who has owned the 10-unit inn only two months, said Sunday that the lodger checked out of the motel on South El Camino Real almost immediately after the crash.

“I think she was lucky to get out with no injury,” Brahmbhatt said. “She heard the big noise of the tree come down by the window and she must have got out of the bed, otherwise she would have got hit. . . . The car hit the bed.”

Before it came to rest near the bed of Room No. 1, Brahmbhatt said, the car mowed down a pine tree and knocked out the “whole front wall and the side wall and the door. Also the window,” Brahmbhatt said. “We had extensive damage.” He said repairs will cost him an estimated $7,500 to $10,000.

Police on Sunday offered only sketchy details of the crash and said they didn’t know how fast the driver was traveling or why he crashed into the motel.

“I was here. It was a shock. But I don’t know how it happened either,” Brahmbhatt said. “I just bought this property two months ago and we are new in town. It’s a not feeling good situation. When I hear it, it doesn’t sound like a car crash with another car. That wouldn’t have made as much noise as this.”