Local News in Brief : Her Car Rolls Amok

An out-of-control Rolls-Royce with a septuagenarian at the wheel bashed four cars and sent pedestrians “scattering like flies” before coming to rest against a tree on the lawn of Beverly Hills City Hall.

The driver, Esther Schulman, 78, of Los Angeles, and two other motorists were only slightly injured but “shook up” following the wild series of collisions that began shortly before noon Friday, Lt. David Griffey said.

Schulman was driving her 1974 Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit east on Santa Monica Boulevard through the Beverly Hills business district when the car began accelerating.

As the car sped up, Schulman lost control, hitting another eastbound car and then crossing into oncoming traffic, bouncing off a parked car and into a third car traveling west on Santa Monica, Lt. Bill Hunt said.

Schulman then drove through an intersection, hitting another car before going up over the curb and across a sidewalk, Hunt said.

“The car then hit a dirt embankment and, according to everyone who saw it, went flying through the air. It was airborne,” Hunt said.

When it landed, the car sped across the City Hall front lawn, smashing a concrete planter and spinning around before coming to rest against a tree, Hunt said.