Injured victim in crash a local car-biz pillar

Marisa O’Neil

Newport Beach resident Earle Ike, 76, worked on Harbor Boulevard for

nearly three decades, selling cars from his Toyota and Volvo

dealerships and later leasing vehicles from a small storefront.

Ike was critically injured in a crash Monday that sent his car

through a store window on the very street he’d spent so much time

driving on. The crash happened about 30 yards from what used to be

Earle Ike Toyota, now South Coast Toyota.

Ike was parked Monday afternoon in the northbound lanes of Harbor

Boulevard in front of his business, Ike Properties, police said. He

attempted to make a U-turn from the curb to go south on Harbor

Boulevard when a station wagon driven by 54-year-old Anaheim resident

Ellen Delzell broadsided Ike’s car, police said.

It rolled across the southbound lanes, jumped a curb, broke

through the front window of Mar Vac Electronics and finally stopped

about 20 feet inside the store.

“It was like it was in slow motion,” said Mesa Upholstery employee

Linda Dill, who ran outside when she heard the crash. “[Ike’s] car

just kept going. I thought it would stop before the window, then it

went through the window. And it kept going in the store.”

Delzell was taken to Hoag Hospital with a broken leg and moderate

injuries, police said. Ike was taken to UC Irvine Medical Center in

Orange with critical chest injuries.

Initial television news reports about the accident said the man in

the accident had died. Dill, a longtime friend of Ike, and other

employees in the upholstery store were relieved to hear Tuesday that

he had survived the crash and were hopeful for his recovery.

“I think he’s tough,” Dill said. “I hope he pulls through. He’s a

great guy.”

Along with the dealerships he owned, Ike was president of the

Orange County Motor Cars Dealer Assn. from 1983 to 1984.

“He’s a very astute businessman,” said Bob Robins, owner of

Theodore Robins Ford in Costa Mesa. “I’ve always found him to be a

real gentleman, and I’ve enjoyed our business relationships.”

Workers at the Mar Vac Electronics store were back in business

Tuesday afternoon. Some had stayed until about 10 p.m. Monday to

board up the store’s broken window, assistant manager Saul Carrillo

said.

And despite the overturned racks and shattered display cases, the

store opened on time Tuesday morning, he said. Nobody in the store

was injured in the accident, he said.

Employee Steve Bergel had been in the aisle where Ike’s car landed

less than a minute before the crash, he said. By then he’d moved to

another part of the store to help a customer.

“I heard, like, explosions,” he said. “And I saw everything

moving, so I ran over [to the back of the store].”

On Tuesday, workers at the electronics store were recovering from

their close call. Some replaced small electronics items on their

hangers.

Customers still crowded into the busy shop, searching for needed

items. But the linoleum floor still bore the tire tracks left by the

car.

* MARISA O’NEIL covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4618 or by e-mail at [email protected].