Three people were hospitalized Saturday after a driver crashed through the front of a nail salon in Perris, California, according to NBC Los Angeles.
The crash happened shortly before 1 p.m. in the 1600 block of North Perris Boulevard, where the vehicle entered a salon that was busy with customers and employees.
Riverside County officials said the three people taken to hospitals were in stable condition. What caused the driver to leave the roadway and hit the business remained under investigation Saturday, and no arrest had been announced.
Video of the aftermath also revealed another casualty viewers immediately recognized: the unmistakably box-shaped vehicle sitting inside the salon was a Honda Element, a model that has been out of production for 15 years and has accumulated a remarkably loyal following in the meantime.
A Busy Saturday
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Salon manager Jonathan Nguyen told NBC4 that at least 10 people were inside when the crash happened.
His mother was among them.
“My mom, she’d seen that, so I guess she jumped just to get out of the way,” Nguyen said. “So, of course she was hurt a little bit. I was scared and in shock.”
Officials did not publicly identify the driver in the initial reporting. They also had not said what caused the crash.
That leaves some obvious possibilities off limits for now. There has been no official finding that impairment, a medical problem, mechanical trouble, or confusing the accelerator and brake caused the Element to enter the salon.
What the video does establish is what happened afterward, including considerable damage to the storefront and an Element sitting where customers would ordinarily expect considerably smaller equipment.
Save The Box
Some viewers of NBC4’s YouTube report seemed to have a second concern after learning the people involved were stable.
“What a waste of a solid Element,” one viewer wrote.
Another kept it shorter: “Another Element down 🙁”
There is some automotive history behind the mourning.
Honda introduced the Element for the 2003 model year after previewing the idea with its Model X concept. In Honda’s original announcement, the company pitched the vehicle squarely at young, active buyers who surfed, snowboarded, mountain biked, and needed something that could function as what Honda called a combination “dorm room/base camp.”
The finished product was difficult to confuse with anything else.
Its center-opening side doors eliminated the traditional B-pillar between the front and rear doors, creating an unusually large opening. Rear seats could be folded away for cargo, and Honda designed the interior around durable, easy-to-clean materials.
It was a compact vehicle that could swallow an impressive amount of stuff, which eventually helped Elements find homes with campers, cyclists, dog owners, small businesses, and people who simply appreciated a vehicle shaped roughly like the box its parts arrived in.
A Finite Supply
Honda stopped building the Element after the 2011 model year.
By the time the end was announced, about 325,000 had been sold in the United States, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The Element had enjoyed an unusually long single-generation production run, but sales had fallen substantially from their early peak. Honda said buyers seeking utility were increasingly choosing vehicles such as the CR-V instead.
The decision created something Honda probably did not intend: a fixed population of weird little boxes with no direct replacement coming off the assembly line.
Fifteen years later, even Honda acknowledges what happened next.
When MotorTrend asked the company this summer about reports that the Element could return, a spokesperson said, “The Honda Element has maintained a cult following since it was discontinued in 2011.”
That explains why footage of one embedded in a California nail salon can produce sympathy for both the people inside and the machinery that joined them.
Maybe Not Forever
The timing is especially good for anyone keeping count of surviving Elements.
Automotive News reported in June that Honda plans to revive the nameplate for 2029 as a hybrid crossover, according to reports from MotorTrend, Car and Driver, and other automotive publications citing the industry outlet.
The reported vehicle would once again be built in Ohio and positioned between the smaller HR-V and CR-V, with the boxy utility concept aimed at adventure-oriented buyers.
There is one important limitation.
Honda has not announced a new Element.
When asked directly about the reports, the automaker thanked people for their continued enthusiasm but declined to discuss future product plans.
So there may eventually be reinforcements for the Element population.
The one currently sitting inside a nail salon in Perris will have to wait for the insurance adjuster.