First-Hand Account: The El Adobe Crash

Scott Kruse was dining at El Adobe Sunday evening with two friends when he got a bit of a wake-up call in the form of a Mercedes Benz careening toward him.

“I would have been the first to go,” the San Juan Capistrano resident said.

Unbeknownst to Kruse at the time, the car headed straight toward him. It crashed through a small fence defining the outdoors eating area and ran into a brick pillar.

“My back was against the pillar,” Kruse said Monday night. “I still have brick and car particles I'm my mouth. It was so fast that I really only heard the impact against the brick pillar.”

The driver, Jose Brema, 61, would later be arrested under the suspicion of driving under the influence.

Kruse, a dad of a 2-year-old daughter, said the incident has prompted him to take stock.

“God wanted me in Isla's life.... It really shook me up,” he said.