I was pleasantly listening to some music on low volume and enjoying the breeze that was blowing in through the open windows. Suddenly, I heard a tremendous screeching noise and an even more tremendous crash a split second later. I looked outside my window, but I couldn’t see anything, so I supposed the accident must have happened on the main road.
Now, some information here: I live in a townhouse and we’re connected to at least five other townhouses. There are another two rows of townhouses behind us and one in front of us. Between these rows is a labyrinth of tiny tiny paved roads that lead out onto the main road. There’s another row of townhouses that face this main road (these townhouses are perpendicular to my row of townhouses). This is where the accident took place and I couldn’t see anything because the townhouses block my view of the main road.
A few minutes later, my brother came running into the house (he had been at a friend’s house) and told me about the accident. I said I had heard it happen and we went outside with the dog in my arms. There was a small crowd of people and police officers were asking if they had seen anything. My brother and I didn’t go right up to the wreck. It was really awful. One car had its front bumper smashed up. I didn’t see the driver and/or other passengers, but I did see the airbags. The car that it apparently hit had crashed into one of the townhouses. Luckily, it didn’t destroy the wall or anything, but both its front and rear bumpers were pretty smashed up. It vaguely resembled a folded-up metal accordian. I didn’t see the driver and/or other passengers in there either. My brother and I didn’t stay very long.
It was pretty scary. I had never seen an accident this big happen so close to me before. I guess the paramedics had acted really quickly. I don’t know what else happened or who got hurt. I’m praying that nobody died. If I hear anything from the neighbours, I’ll post it.
Two 18-year-olds were killed within a block of my house about a month ago. It happened at about 3am, so I wasn’t at all aware of it. Seems they’d been drinking, and misjudged a curve while driving too fast, and hit a telephone pole.
Now there’s a whole pile of stuff around the telephone pole - Teddy Bears, flowers, etc. It bothers me every time I drive past. I hate those memorials - what do they do, other than remind people of a horrible accident?
I live at the bottom of a curve on a 50 mph road. It is a T-intersection about 50 yards to the south of our driveway. At the end of the T is a barn.
Cars go sailing through the stop sign EVERY WINTER and crash through the barn. One woman was decapitated. Numerous have been killed. It’s really a shame. You’d think after hearing how many people died, people would take it easy.
Kalhoun, there’s an onramp in San Francisco that has a nasty little turn in it. After putting up with almost daily accidents right outside their door, the workers in a sheet metal shop on the inside of the turn put up an obviously non-official sign saying “DAMMIT SLOW DOWN” that was remarkably effective in getting people to drive more carefully…
Highway 17 is a particularly windy, hilly highway that goes from Los Gatos to Santa Cruz. There is a cement divider between the two direction nearly the whole way, with a few spaces in the divider for turning into driveways and roads. One day when I was driving home, I drove by a horrible accident. There had been a head-on collision in the opposite direction. The car facing the wrong way was a convertible, and someone had draped a tarp or blanket over it by the time I drove past. There were people literally running around in panic, crying. The next day I read in the paper that a teenage boy had two teenage girls in the front passenger seat of his convertible (not wearing their seatbelts), and as they were driving he (for some reason never determined) had swerved through one of the spaces in the divider, into oncoming traffic, causing a head-on collision. The girls and the other driver were killed instantly. The boy was in a coma. I will never forget the looks on those peoples faces as they stood there in utter shock waiting for the emergancy vehicles to arrive. It chills my blood.
Damnit! You obviously hacked into my laptop and stole that from the screenplay I’ve been writing for the past five years! I have a scene where our anti-hero protagonist swings by a crash memorial to grab some flowers and a teddy bear on the way to pick up his date.
I still don’t know anything else. I guess the police took away the cars or something because my mother came home an hour after my brother and she said she didn’t see anything there.
I’m “proud” to say I’ve left my own mark on that divider. I guess three years ago, my girlfriend was driving me down to SC from Redwood City, along with all the stuff she was bringing for fall semester at UCSC. It was pretty overcast and rainy, and on one of the sharper southbound left turns, we started fishtailing right, then back to the left, and again to the right so far that the front passenger corner hit the wall. I guess we fishtailed long enough for everyone to back off, so despite the traffic, we were able to hobble the Jeep over to the shoulder (which was thankfully right there). We weren’t hurt, but the Jeep was totalled.
Also, while we waited there, we watched as someone else scrape violently along the side of the mountain on the northbound side. Bad day all around. That same curve still ctaches me off guard when I go down to SC. I guess it’s not quite sharp enough to warrant a sign.
Three months ago today I got a phone call from my mom right after I got home from work. Now it’s very unusual for her to call at that time of day, so I knew something was wrong. She told me that she and my sister had had a “little accident” earlier in the day. Mom and sis had some minor injuries, but Mom’s new Envoy was totalled.
I found out that Mom had been driving through an intersection on a green light when a speeding fire truck smashed into her without warning. No sirens, no lights – absolutely nothing. According to Mom, the crash was already inevitable when the driver of the firetruck saw her and flipped on the siren. The firetruck slammed into the front left corner of the Envoy and sent it spinning through the intersection. I saw pictures of the accident – the front end of the car was gone. Mom and sis are very lucky to be alive.
I was surprised that no one was cited for the accident. The investigating officer said that my mom had the right of way because she had a green light and had checked for cars before entering the intersection. However, the officer said that because firetrucks always have the right of way, he couldn’t cite the other driver, either. Mom was told not to be surprised if the fire department filed a claim against her for the damage to its truck.
I told my mom that we have to work on her definition of “little accident.”
Dunno where to start. As a retired EMT I’ve seen a gob of bad accidents. I’ve witnessed two. The second I was the sole responder for about 35 minutes, and I had what was left of a woman’s life in my hands. Not good.
The most recent and to me utterly reprehensible accident happened a few weeks ago in town. A guy on a Ninja-type motorcycle. You know- you HAVE to lay down over it to ride and steer them? He was rocketing along so fast he already had a cop after him. Went around a turn. A car was driving out of a side driveway into the main road. This is one lane in each direction, with a 45 mph limit. He was doing in the area of 70. He struck the driver’s side directly with such violence that the automobile was flipped over onto it’s roof by the impact.
Pause a second, shall we? The automobile was flipped onto it’s roof by the force of this motorcycle smashing into the driver’s side door.
He died instantly. The gal driving died instantly, impaled by the motorcycle. Her fiancee is a mess but alive and living alone in the house they’d just bought, trying to figure out what to do with the rest of his life.
Oh, the hot-shot biker? He had 5 speeding tickets in our town alone, with more than 5 additional ones out of town but within New York State. It was everything I could do to keep quiet when I heard some mourner walking to the wake ( I had an appointment just down the street from the Funeral Home that evening ) who said, " Hey, the dude died a righteous death, man. On his bike, doing his thing." :dubious: This fellow called it a righteous death. Me, I call it Vehicular Homicide.
I personally think the roadside memorials one sees are entirely appropriate and healthy. My two cents.
The officer was covering, because he/she is expected to. I do not know what state you live in, but I can nearly guarantee you that your state has very specific guidelines and laws that govern how a fire truck or ambulance approaches, enters and passes through a Red Light intersection.
If they were running Alpha Response - with no sirens or lights -and ran a red light, they broke the law. In fact, the Fire Engine Driver can be arrested. Find an attorney. One who is NOT pals with the police department. Have that person check the Code in your state, and then proceed accordingly. The absurd thread of having a claim filed against your mom will fade away quickly when the Fire Engine Driver is arrested for criminal negligence in the operation of their truck.
I used to drive an Ambulance, and had to pass a NYS EVOC ( Emergency Vehicle Operations Certification ) before being allowed to operate an ambulance. It’s not a game, and the cop was covering up for a Fire Engine Driver who blatantly broke the law.
Thank god your Mom is okay, and get an attorney. Drivers like that Firefighter give every other EMS and Fire driver a bad name.
I’ve said the same thing to my parents, but I think they’re too intimidated to file a lawsuit. From what I’ve heard, the driver of the fire truck is not only a good buddy of the investigating officer, but the fire chief’s son. I knew something was up when there was absolutely no coverage of the accident in the local newspaper. Accidents like this are usually front-page news.
My sister is still a wreck three months later, no pun intended. I think I’ve mentioned before that she’s autistic. She used to love car trips, but now she’s terrified of any big or loud vehicle – firetrucks, ambulances, school buses, you name it. We were riding in the car with our mom on the Fourth of July when an ambulance pulled on to the road (with its lights and sirens on, fortunately). My sister grabbed her seat and started screaming! She still refers to May 17 as the day Galadriel (my mom’s car) was killed.
(That’s another reason why my mom’s just letting it go – she doesn’t want to put my sister through any more trauma.)
So do billboards, signs designating highways as memorials for those killed in drunk driving accidents, and anything shiny or on fire. If I had to object to memorials, it wouldn’t be on those grounds.
Though I can see you might agree with Detective Elliot Stabler of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit about similar memorials for murder victims…
I’ve witnessed my share of accidents. One in particular has stayed with me for almost 40 years now…
I was in third grade. In those days we didn’t have buses to take us home from school if we lived within 2 or 3 miles of the school… so a lot of us had to walk. I lived just outside Washington D.C. so we had to cross several fairly busy roads. For the most busy, Pennsylvania Avenue (extended… MD route 4), we had a crossing guard. After this, we walking a block up the hill and those of us that had to, crossed left across another fairly busy road. This crossing was manned by a Student Safety Patrol (one of the students in the school). I was approaching this crossing when I heard the patrol yelling. I looked up and I saw a classmate’s first grader brother running across the street… right into the path of a car. It hit him, knocking him (as my mother would say) ass over tin cups. He was thrown, tumbling and rolling over 100 feet.
I knew that his brother was ahead of me and I knew where they lived. I crossed the road and went into a dead run. I finally caught the brother about a block from his house. I told him that his brother had been hit by a car. At first he didn’t believe me. Eventually he did… and he ran home to get his mother.
This happened on a Friday. I did not know how the little brother was until Monday. I was walking to school and saw my classmate… and his little brother walking to school. I asked the little one how he was, his brother pulled me to the side and told me his brother was okay, just some brush burns… and had no memory of what had happened.
Well, I personally find these memorials more distracting than billboards and such, possible because they are a more recent development, and I haven’t learned to ignore them yet. YMMV of course.
I’ve never seen or been in an accident that was more than a fender-bender, but I did see a hit-and-run last week. I was waiting for the subway (where the “subway” comes above ground and is more like lightrail) when I heard a cruch followed by someone leaning on their horn. I turned to see the following scene: about 50 feet away, a red car was angled out from curb, as though it was pulling out or parallel parking. A black SUV (not a huge one) had hit it on the side behind the rear wheel-well. Everybody standing at the rail stop looked, and everything froze for a moment. Then, the SUV’s reverse lights came on and it started backing out, fast. It booked it to the end of the block, swung around 90 degrees (still in reverse, in a busy intersection), and took off down the other road. Bastard.
Here’s the kicker: by the time the SUV drove past me, I realized it was taking off and I got the license plate number and a quick glance at the driver. I walked over to the woman in the red car and gave her the plate number and my name and phone number. I got a call from her insurance company a couple days ago and repeated the story to them. I hope they stick it to that hit-n-run sumbitch. Fortunately, the red car was only dented.
