Anchorage barber keeps on clipping after crash

[December 03, 2010]  ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Talk about a close shave. An SUV crashed into an Anchorage barber shop, narrowly missing shop owner Heng Song and his two customers.

But Song wasn't about to let the horrifying moment get in the way of a good haircut.

He was momentarily stunned, yes, when the vehicle burst through a door and window Wednesday afternoon as he was clipping a customer's hair.

"Half a haircut and kaboom!" is how the 53-year-old native of South Korea described it Thursday, after the shop had been cleared of debris and the gaping hole was boarded with plywood.

The drama was caught by a security camera, and footage shows the SUV land fully inside the shop, where Song stood behind a man in the barber's chair and another customer sat waiting on a sofa in the corner. Time seems to stand still with everyone stunned, motionless, before Song stands with hands on hips and then points to the SUV.

No one was seriously hurt, although the driver got a bruised knee in the collision with the building. In the security footage, the waiting customer walks over to the vehicle to check on the driver and calls police.

Song laughed Thursday as the footage showed him soon return to the chair and continue the haircut, while in the background bystanders began to gather. There's no way he would let a loyal customer go home with a botched job, Song said.

Leaving a customer with half a haircut, he said, would be "something too ugly."

On top of that, Song gave both customers haircuts on the house. He said it's the least he could do after the ordeal.

The SUV driver, Bienvenido David, is a barber shop customer who was planning to shop at a grocery store next door. His daughter, Ana David, said her father accidentally pressed the gas pedal instead of the brakes as he parked.

[Associated Press; By RACHEL D'ORO]

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