Another Accident at Annunciation Park

I've blogged about this before, how many accidents there are at the corner of Annunciation and Race Streets, where Annunciation dead-ends at Annunciation Park. The accidents I've written about before have all occurred at night, or in the very early morning hours. I always thought they were a function of driving in an unfamiliar area at night, since the lights that run through the Park could trick someone into thinking that Annunciation Street continues straight through.

But the accident that occurred last week was in broad daylight. It was about 9 am on a weekday morning and I was in bed, contemplating getting up, when I heard the familiar thudding sound of a car hitting another car square on. (Big Man is always joking about how he's gonna start parking the van at Annunciation Park, so the next accident will wipe out a vehicle we should never have been gulled into buying.) I jumped out of bed, threw on a caftan and hurried downstairs.

I joined a small throng of neighbors who had gathered on the sidewalks and porches to view the scene -- a grey car that had just gone straight through the stop sign on the corner, smashing so hard perpendicularly into the brand-new tricked-out pimped-up pick-up truck owned by the family in the house on the corner that two of the wheels had snapped right off.

We heard later from the cops investigating the scene that the driver said he had fallen asleep at the wheel. Guess he's lucky to be alive. Hope for my neighbor's sake he had good insurance, for their truck is surely totalled.

Months ago, I wrote to complain about this corner and the many accidents there to TV's Action Reporter Bill Capo, but I guess it didn't ring his bell. he's never done a story on it, and the city has never installed stop-sign warnings earlier in the block, or a double-arrow caution sign at the dead end.

People who've lived in the neighborhood longer than we have say the accidents we've seen are not even the half of it. But apparently it's not enough for the city to do anything about.