Car Attacks Fire Station

Did you know that in the last two years there's been at least 19 crashes of cars into stationary objects off the road? You know - like houses or stores, really big and visible things!

The latest was a driver going up the hill on Orchard Heights who was able to crash into the fire station. Now maybe they had a medical emergency, but it wouldn't be surprising if the driver was trying to catch air, hop, or otherwise speed.

August 13th crash into Fire Station 11 on Orchard Heights

From the story:

The crash occurred around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 13. The vehicle, headed west up the hill on Orchard Heights left the roadway, drove over the island between lanes, through the landscaping and into the building.

This is right across the street from a cluster of schools!

And to repeat a point: The driver was going uphill and still had sufficient speed to cross the road, cross the landscaping, and plow into the fire station, set back a ways from the road.

Orchard Heights is pretty wide and zoomy here. The wide and overbuilt avenue encourages speeding and sometimes hopping. It may not have the largest number of fatalities in the city, and by that definition may not be among the most dangerous, but it's not comfortable and at least anecdotally has a problem with speeding.

Another one from December, 2013

The story about the crash into the Fire Station may be neutered as an "accident," perhaps seasoned by errors in "driver judgement," but it's also a demonstration of the ways cars and driving are dangerous and our roads often too big.

If you haven't visited, check out the compilation. One at a time, they don't seem like much. But in aggregate they're more than a little surprising.