POULSBO — Donene Monroe was inside her Fluff ’N’ Stuff salon on the corner of Cedar Lane and Finn Hill Road when the car spun, went up the small embankment, slammed into the power pole, and landed on its top on the street and sidewalk.

There was no way she couldn’t hear it — the impact of steel on wood, concrete and asphalt.

She ran outside and saw two legs sticking out from inside the overturned Volkswagen Scirocco, and immediately thought the person needed help.

Turned out it was the driver, James Christensen, who had already crawled out of his vehicle unscathed, and was fishing around for his phone in what remained of his car.

“I like to think I’m tough,” the avid cyclist said.

Tough, perhaps, and lucky. “Lucky” is the word a Poulsbo firefighter/EMT used to describe the outcome of the collision, which occurred shortly before 10 a.m. March 14. Drivers of both cars involved reported not being injured.

The driver of the other vehicle was glum and shaken by the collision. He said he was trying to get to class on time at Northwest College of Art and Design and didn’t realize he was driving over the 25 mph speed limit. His Ford Focus rear-ended Christensen’s car; Christensen said his car went into a spin. The next thing he knew, he was crawling out of his totalled, overturned car.

Monroe said she’s owned and operated Fluff ’N’ Stuff for 42 years, and has seen a lot of changes at Poulsbo Junction. But one thing hasn’t changed: “People drive too fast” on that stretch of road, she said. “[A crash] is just a matter of time.”

Cause of crash, responsibility, and citation, if any, will be included in the investigator’s report, to be completed later.