Monday, September 29, 2008

OFF TOPIC: We Interrupt This Blog

There I was ... innocently watching and blogging Heroes. All of a sudden I heard a huge crash. I left my Heroes dangling, called 911, and headed outside. Oh, yes. I put my camera in my pocket. Mind you, I live in a 30 MPH zone -- a city street with parked cars on either side.


These are the driver and passengers of the overturned Jeep which hit all the cars.


Shhh ... I wasn't back 300 feet.


I'm out of order here. The overturned Jeep is on the flatbed and that's red car #1-- her back axle is smashed, the car is probably totaled. The car parked behind her was hit, too. That one got by with scrapes and a destroyed hubcap.


This is car #3 on the right with the overturned Jeep on the left. Car #3 had been innocently parked with its nose to the right ... and not on the lawn.


The Jeep on its side and car #3 again. The front end of that car is all crunched, too.


Lieutenants dress funny here.


This is car #4. Car #3 pushed in its back end about ten inches and its nose is under a second (parked) Jeep.



This is car #4's nose under the Jeep which was parked in front of it.

Six vehicles, four of them totaled. When they righted the overturned Jeep, beer bottles were all over the ground falling through the broken windows. The driver was arrested for drunk driving. There were five people in the Jeep. The neighbors here pulled them all out. Other than minor bumps, no one was hurt.

Ah, but an odd man on the street carrying a bottle in bag and reeking of alcohol claimed he saw it all. According to him, someone came out of the driveway across the street, bottomed out on the slight hill in the driveway, then went out of control. According to him, he hit three other cars going the other direction, then sideswiped the Jeep causing him to lose control.

I don't know. It could have happened that way. It's just a good thing no one got hurt. And, if the Jeep driver was drunk, his reactions are off.

But I wouldn't advise parking on my street.

30 comments:

Sydney said...

WOW that's damage of epic proportions! I could not believe how it grew with each picture. That must have been a LOUD crash. Never a dull moment in Jackie's hood

Anonymous said...

It's amazing how much damage was done to all the vehicles without anyone being seriously hurt. Did all the noise and activity scare your cat?

Mine were really spooked when a drunk driver took out the big maple tree on my front boulevard a couple of weeks ago.

Anonymous said...

i will take that under advisement next time i'm in your neck of the woods, jackie!! wow! crazy jersey drivers!!

i was coming home one night, late on route 1 south, driving in the center lane (of 3). car came up on me fast, saw the bright headlights getting closer and closer...guess he finally realized it and cut over to the right...swerved too fast bc when he tried to cut back in front of me he lost control and spun around. do you know how scary it is to have headlights facing you on a divided highway? long story short, he hit the concrete barrier and spun around again before coming to a stop. i wasn't hit (amazingly) but his new beautiful lexus went home on a rollback. he wasn't drunk, just a crazy jersey driver.

(i'm allowed to be biased, i once was one of those drivers)

joyzjenn

Jackie S. said...

Sydney - EXTREMELY loud. My windows were open, too. This is the third bad accident with totaled parked cars in front of my building within the past year.

Sally - I jumped, but she didn't get phased at all. If my cat who died last year still was here, he would have freaked out. Any loud noise did that to him. I feel so bad for the owners of the parked cars. Most of them live in the apartments across the street and this is a working class neighborhood. The Jeep driver had no insurance and a suspended license.

Jackie S. said...

Joyzjenn - Those concrete Jersey barriers are scary. I was entering a 7-11 on Route 22 once when I heard a crash. I looked towards the highway. A car had ridden up on the barrier, HOOD UP, and was careening out of control towards the 7-11. What did I do? I stood there frozen like a deer in the headlights. When he jumped the curb, he stalled out and the car stopped about 30 feet away from me.

Gah. NJ drivers!

lynn1 said...

What a night for you, your neighbors and the innocent victims of this driver.
I won't get on my soap box other than to say I hope the person who cause this destruction gets punished severely.
Thank goodness no one was injured or killed.
Jackie were you able to unwind enough to get to sleep last night?

Delee said...

Jackie, you get a lot of excitement. Glad no one was hurt and Miss I-reporter caught the aftermath. Doubt if that was 35mph.
Also not a weekend, they should have been home watching DWTS or Heroes. LOL

RBennie said...

Wow Jackie, who needs tv when you have action movies happening at your front door! It's a miracle no one was seriously injured.

Terry is a Texan! said...

Yikes! What a total disruption to your Heroes!!
Great photography Jackie....oh and yes, they do dress the Lt's funny!

Sydney said...

really, I am shocked to see the level of utter destruction.

Tom`S said...

Oh my -

Wow Nascar to Jackie's..

I enjoy Topic topic's.
Speaking of off Topic's;
What kind of collectable items do some of you all collect? For instance collecting stamps, baseball cards,( I have so many of these )
I'm interested what other people collect, I could be wording it wrong.
I've been sleepy the last 4 days, it's time I crank my brain up.

Thanks

Jennasmom said...

Wow! I'm definitely not parking on your street, Jackie! Glad no one was seriously injured.

Off topic: Orkmommy, I will be watching our boy Bob on Thursday, but I won't be online. We are going to our little lake cabin today and the internet access is primitive at best. I can't wait 30 minutes for a page to load! And for some reason the comments here do not load right when I'm there. Will be back to civilization on Saturday! LOL

Tom's - I collect dolls & teddy bears. Used to collect elephants, but most of them got broken in a move. Just a few left.

Hugs to all! Will TRY to check in while we're gone!

Laurie said...

As a member of MADD I will get on my soapbox and say the driver should be punished to the full extent of the law.

My sympathies are with the innocent people who parked their cars on the street, fully expecting to use them today.

Great photos, Jackie!

Jennasmom, have a wonderful time in the country!

Tom's, I collect vintage Fiestaware and angels.

Sydney said...

Tom's unfortunately, I collect books (more than I read them, lol). I no longer collect shoes, because I don't have the life for them anymore, lol.

I collect survival supplies, lol. If you are in a disaster, you want to be with me or at my house...! Remember that, as I am just a few hours drive away!

Anonymous said...

I collect Hallmark ornaments, nativity sets (unusual ones like the Peanuts and one made from of marbles), used to do beanies - still have them all but don't buy anymore, Boyd Bear Angels, Tupperware, and penguins. Gosh I need help.
Margo

RBennie said...

Off Topic:
I posted this on the TAR post, but thought I should put it here too.

Hi guys. Here is the latest list of TAR pool participants. We still need 6 more people.

Rbennie
Becky
Delee
Margo
Karen in MD/DC
Joy n
Lynn1
Donna in al
Jackie
Laurie
Monty924
Sydney
MEB
PDX Granny

I know we have more TAR fanatics than this, come on and join the fun.

Petals said...

rbennie ~ Consider me signed-up (for TAR). I'm in the Survivor pool, but there's enough of me to go around (haha).
Any news from anyone re: Sharon? Sorry I had/have nothing to contribute except this: I sometimes get totaly caught-up in "real life". Last time, I dropped off television and blogging for an entire season of BB and Survivor. So, maybe Sharon is just laying low...(crossed fingers).
LOVE YOU GUYS!

RBennie said...

Hi Petals, nice to hear from ya. I put you on the list.

joy n said...

Jackie, sounds like you had some fireworks for the end of summer. Good to hear nobody was hurt. Someone needs to pay those innocent people some restitution for their damages.

Tom's, I'm a big fan of Jimmy Smits and have a collection of photos, scripts, posters, etc. My hubby collects anything Superman. We have tons of stuff around here.

Anonymous said...

Jackie-great reporting! Now please, watch both ways when you open your door! This is getting to close to home.

Are you up far enough that none of these yahoo's would end up in your living room and rearrange it without your permission?

Take care Jackie and stay safe!

Delee said...

I collect cookbooks, cow items (Holstein),quilting fabric (don't ask unless your a quilter then you know), Penn State weekly game badges, and tins. Seems I have multiple's of things that I do not collect (does that make sense?).

Anonymous said...

rbennie, just like with Survivor, I can't promise to be around enough to help, but you can put my name in the pool if you need an extra. It sounds like fun.

Laurie, I agree about MADD. I was on several juries a few years ago and we heard 3 or 4 drunk driving cases. I thought it would be an open and shut case...and it was for me, but I was in for a surprise. Other jurors didn't want to convict. They had excuses, they thought the person had 'learned their lesson' without going to jail. I was aghast at their comments. One person said he was called out by a family member after he had been ready for bed and had taken some cough syrup, which is why he tested over the limit for alcohol. They jurors bought it and didn't think he should be penalized for trying to help his family. (eye roll here) Bottom line, I could see that all those who didn't want to convict someone were personalizing it. They would say, 'my son has a drink at dinner' etc. I held my own. : ) But, it was interesting to hear how easily jurors wanted to let the person off the hook.

Jackie S. said...

Patty - I'm second floor in a T-shaped large apartment building (40ish apartments) on the long leg of the T away from the street. Maybe in danger of a low flying helicopter or something.

Donna in Alabama said...

Jackie,
Maybe your pictures could be on the news or help in those people getting some compensation or getting the driver put away.

I hope I get someone on TAR that can last until the end. I lucked out on the Survivor pool with Gillian. Also, I will be more apt to plan on watching each episode.

Tom's,
I don't really collect anything but I do have a fetish for pens and small containers. Don't know why I like these?? I did collect Christmas tins a few years back and ceramic unicorns. I decided I didn't like collecting things that sit on shelves. They collect dust and you have to pick them up and move to dust.

Unknown said...

Jackie, you have a second (well, third) career in crime scene photography! Don't know how you sorted out all those cars and who hit what!

What a mess!

Tom's, I collect books. Way too many of them that I can't seem to part with. And I also have a thing for office supplies. I have drawers full of stuff from Office Max that I'm sure I'll never use.

rbennie: I'd be happy to play in the TAR pool, if there's still any room?

Anonymous said...

Rbennie - sign me up for the TAR pool!

Jennasmom

P.S. I actually got the comments to load up here in our cabin, but it won't let me use the Google/Blogger option. So I am back to Anonymous with my black letters!

Anonymous said...

clementine, I love office supplies! When I was little, one favorite toy was a pretend switchboard. I played office. And the month before school starts, when the stores put out school supplies, I am there looking over all the new book covers and gadgets. So funny of me, since I don't go to school and haven't had a child in one for years. Best time of year, though.

Good topic question, toms

PDX Granny said...

There's a new post started, so I posted my response about my addiction, er I mean collection there. :)

Sydney said...

Sue and Clem, that is just amazing... I too have office supplies up the wazoo and Sue, I spend hours picking out my notebooks and pens when I was a kid and I still find myself, especially in Fall, fingering lined paper for smoothness or smell, testing pens, looking at blank books and binders!

Donna in AL -- I don't havce lots of pictures in frames or tchotchkes around for that very reason!

Caroline said...

Count me in as another one who LOVES office supplies. When I was younger I used to go to conferences with my parents for my dad's job and loved all the highlighters, pens, pencils, erasers and all that stuff that we'd get. I still have boxes full of all the pencils that I'll probably never use before I die.

I also avidly collect books mostly cause I avidly read the books, although I definitely don't read them as fast as I buy them. Book stores are my weakness, I can't set foot in one and leave without buying at least 3 books.

rbennie...I left a note on the TAR post, but I would also love to be in the pool.