April 7, 1947,
Los Angeles Times:
ProQuest via LAPL
Even with the beam removed it looks like the car's occupants just missed sudden death from all the bricks:
Islandora/UCLA/LA Daily News Negatives
Here's a wider view of the scene after the car was pulled out of the wrecked warehouse, built as an auto garage in 1922.
There's a May 14, 1947, building permit to repair the damage caused by the auto accident. The poster in the window in
the lower right corner is for the Cole Brothers Circus, which performed at Washington and Hill from September 27 to
October 6, 1946:
Islandora/UCLA/LA Daily News Negatives
I think this is a 1946 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible. Mr. Sarthou must have been driving too fast. The 1950 Sanborn Map
shows a warehouse at 115-117 N. Grand, so the numbers
117 may have been a casualty of the crash:
Islandora/UCLA/LA Daily News Negatives
In this photo of the police investigating the accident, we see the
St. Omer at 123 N. Grand on the north side of the warehouse:
Islandora/UCLA/LA Daily News Negatives