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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.
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.
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Sounds like that's all one operation: the car hits the hydrant; the point of impact stays put and the rest of the car keeps going forward (and, therefore, up and over).
I do remember being told in Drivers' Ed that if you have to crash into something, try to aim for a wall and not a tree, because the wall will spread the force of impact over a larger area.
The 6-year-old in me says ...
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Glad the occupants of the car were *able* to walk. Surprised that they did!
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I was living a few blocks away from the great Gramercy Park steam pipe explosion in New York. It sounded like a 747 taking off, and the geyser boiled alive people who were unlucky enough to be in the front rooms of the buildings next to it. Glad you're all right.
Re: The 6-year-old in me says ...
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Re: The 6-year-old in me says ...
Re: The 6-year-old in me says ...
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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.
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I wish we were going to be in your area longer this weekend so we could get together.
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I wish we could get together too. Sadly, we're not going to be in our area this weekend. Perhaps another time!
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I do wonder how they're going to get the car back out of there.
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Second walked away? they could have very easily been driven away in an ambulance or worse.
Third, huh huh she said water pressure.....cool.
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Reading this, I find myself thinking of 2 other neighborhood accidents. 1) Yesterday morning,
2) Many years ago a friend told me of an accident that happened on his street. A drunk man was driving in circles (donuts) in the intersection near his house... then when he went to go straight down the street, he missed, hit the guard cable for the telephone pole, went straight UP the cable, and stuck the car hanging there. (I think authorities then a bit later and got him & the car down.) ....I imagine this tale to be both a comical (as well as scary for where else that car could have gone)... and one of just now strong those telephone pole anchor cables are!
Re: The 6-year-old in me says ...
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Now I'm wondering whether the occupants were wearing seatbelts.
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Every airbag in the vehicle went off though. Whole interior was full of shrunken airbag remains. :-)
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Wow, both those accidents sound really impressive. Sometimes we don't realize how much kinetic energy there is in a vehicle going fast. And those anchor cables...! I never would have thought they'd stand up to that.
Re: The 6-year-old in me says ...
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I wouldn't have imagined the anchor cables standing up to that either. I imagine that the drunk must have hit it just right for the car to climb right up it rather than either snapping the cable or shearing something off the car.
Thinking of kinetic energy... even at 35-40mph, there's a lot, especially if two vehicles hitting each other hit head on. (That's what happened in the 1988 accident I was in where the 1981 Oldsmobile I was driving got totaled & 3A called me to find out if it was a 4 or 6 cylinder car because the hood was jammed down on the engine & partially through the windshield, so they couldn't tell by looking.) I got myself out of that one, but I was bleeding, and did need an ambulance.
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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.
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That says a lot, that AAA *couldn't tell* what kind of engine it had.
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I'm glad the people got out okay! Even though they sound like jerks, I wouldn't wish anybody to get hurt.
I want to see pictures too!
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I too am glad they got out okay.
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I could go into much more detail about that 1988 accident when I was 18... I still remember a lot of it.
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It was a 1981 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme coupe, a good mid-sized car, hit by a full size Ford Econoline van. The van suffered a crumpled fender, flat tire, and broken sidelight (on the crumpled fender).