Morning excitement

[cjsmith]

I was sitting in the living room when I heard eeeeeeeeee BOOM, windows rattling and all. Rob emerged from the shower wondering if a car had crashed into our house.

Close.

A car had crashed into the fire hydrant on the corner, next door to our house, and was now upside down in the neighbors' rosebushes. Where the hydrant had been was a two-story fountain about five feet in diameter. By the time I got there, less than a minute after the noise, the car was empty. Across the street a bicyclist stood staring at this tableau and talking on his cellphone. I saw a figure look around the neighbors' open backyard gate and vanish again. Shortly afterward a slender black man reached into the car, grabbed a small bag, and walked calmly away down the street with a woman beside him. Witnesses said the car had been going eastward on Homestead very very fast, weaving, and had tried to take the turn onto my street at an impossible speed. Police arrived, took witness statements, and found the driver and passenger. Firemen got the water shut off. I got to meet several of my neighbors for the first time. (Not the occupants of the house. They weren't there. I wonder what they're going to think when they get home.)

This was impressive in a lot of ways:
1) The police arrived very fast. (I learned later that they were already chasing that car.)
2) That hydrant saved the house.
3) A fire hydrant can make a really big hole in the front of a car. And flip it, and spin it so it's backwards (nose pointing back the way it came).
4) The occupants of the car walked away.
5) The police found them anyway.
6) We have some serious water pressure, yo.

I bet the owner of that car is going to miss it.

Comments

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was definitely over my Minimum Daily Requirement. :-)

Given that they pulled this stunt in an attempt to escape some cops, I'm not at all surprised that they left the scene. But I'm really impressed that they were able to walk.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

High speed chases can be *really* dangerous.

Now I'm wondering whether the occupants were wearing seatbelts.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing no, because they were able to get out.

Every airbag in the vehicle went off though. Whole interior was full of shrunken airbag remains. :-)

[shadopanther.livejournal.com]

I would have thought it'd take more than airbags to keep un-seat-belted occupants in a car that does that. I could be wrong though. None of the cars I've driving that have been hit have had airbags... and in the major one when I was 18, I very much give my seat belt a lot of credit for my still being alive.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I honestly wonder what kept their necks from snapping. Neither airbags nor seat belts will reliably do that, not when people land directly on their heads.

The only reason I'd've guessed no belts is how fast they were able to leave the vehicle. But then I don't even know how they managed to get the doors open. The body of the car was crunched pretty badly, as you might imagine it would be after it landed on its roof. For all I know they were in Superhuman Mode and could get out of the belts easily too!

I was "trained" to be a seat belt user by a boyfriend who had a similar experience: he was hit badly and credits the seat belt with saving his life.

[shadopanther.livejournal.com]

I can only guess that they were lucky and there was enough space between the roof of the car & their heads that they were protected. I would also guess crawling out through what remained of a window rather than a door. I exited through my shattered side window in the accident when I was 18.

I could go into much more detail about that 1988 accident when I was 18... I still remember a lot of it.