DCist: Hulk Smash So Many Cars in Columbia Heights

serpico

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:39:58 -0500

Jamie, you do make a good point that a speed hump will not deter a drunk driver, especially at the magnitude that must have befallen those maniacs Monday night on 13th. But, I too agree with DC Mama that the real problem points to the frequent flow of jackasses, most of them most likely sober, blowing stop signs and pushing 50 mph through residential streets like Euclid, Fairmont, and Girard. Those streets, unlike Harvard and/or Columbia, are two-way, barely meet code in terms of legal width, and offer a singal-free shortcut to/from 14th and 9th streets. It is a no-brainer when you see kids playing in these streets and think of the significantly higher volume of foot traffic in general now that more people are moving to CH because of its walkability. I am amazed that nobody has been killed yet and fear it is situation of "when", not "if", unless appropriate action is taken.

Disco Stu

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:38:21 -0500

If you check out the MPD website, there's info on the Automated Speed Enforcement. We're not talking about a couple of miles over. Some vehicles have been going 100mph over the limit.

flamingcissy

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:53:02 -0500

I always do what that nice lady in my dashboard tells me to.

Sketchee

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:44:13 -0500

DCMama: Is a speed bump really going to stop a non-city driver following their GPS's instructions from driving down your street?

DCMama

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:56:48 -0500

Sorry Jamie, Euclid needs speed humps. It is a side street that too many treat as a main road. When an explorer with MD tags comes blasting down from 13th toward 11th (with no stop sign at 12th), its only luck that keeps an unwary pedestrian at 12th street (or a kid chasing a ball) from getting killed. And, the speeders are not drunks, just careless F*cks.

jamie

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:39:25 -0500

Please, no more speed bumps!! Traffic calming measures DON'T WORK on drunk people. In fact, they will likely cause them to lose control when they hit one at 50 mph. You really think that someone who caused that much damage would have given a hoot about a speed hump? The speed limit is 25 MPH. If you want the speed limit to be 5 MPH, then argue for that legislation, rather than installing speed bumps, which not only can cause damage to cars but limit emergency vehicles' effectiveness. And besides, the pedestrians getting killed are mostly by buses, anyway. I can't think of a single pedestrian fatality on a side street as a result of someone driving too fast. They almost all happen at busy, heavily traveled interchanges.

Everett

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:36:58 -0500

I mean, isn't the city in which that woman ran over a bunch of people, including little kids, at a street fair last summer? At least we're only talking cars here.

serpico

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:31:25 -0500

From ten feet I witnessed a lady drill a parked car on Fairmont off 14th. Stunned, she got out of the car, assessed her wrongdoing, and then casually drove off. I got her plates and was able to help the victim, my neighbor, along with DCPD, in tracking her down. The funniest thing, State Farm calls me a week later and says the bitch is trying to deny the charges. And this, after her front panel fell off at the scene. Total idiot. This, last night, and other examples spell out collectively a much bigger problem emerging in CH. You have an influx of pedestrians yet absolutely no traffic calming measures until you get west of 16th, and then only on Lanier out to Calvert. DDOT needs to lay down some funds and install speed humps along Euclid, Fairmont, Girard, and Harvard between 11th and 14th. Hopefully it doesn't take a few people dying to finally open their eyes.

Vaughan

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:08:39 -0500

sorry - i think the Erotican Theorem on Via Euclidian Chaos is a far more descriptive title given the advanced stage of, um theorizing.

monkeyrotica

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:45:31 -0500

I've narrowed down the Euclid culprit to either lei lines, Indian burial grounds, or the dreaded Cthulhu. He's got a tentacle in every pie, that one. Although, I might go so far as to blame Creedence as well. John Fogarty hasn't been the same since he split up with Fantasy Records and neither has Euclid Street. Coincidence?

Vaughan

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:33:46 -0500

@fedward: euclid, you say? more creedence to monkey's theory that, for unspecified geometrical reasons, all streets named euclid are the epicenter of chaos in most cities.

fedward

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:51:32 -0500

Since I had to move my car across the street for tomorrow's street cleaning, I took a stroll a block down the street and took some pictures of what's left of the aftermath. And to answer the question of how they can do that at 25: they can't. Not only that but there are stop signs at Girard and Fairmont. I see people blow through them all the time, which is probably what happened here. The Saturn (the minivan/SUV thing) is about halfway down the block between Fairmont and Euclid. Also if there was anything south of Euclid last night towards Clifton it's completely gone now. Everything I saw (including debris) was limited to the block between Fairmont and Euclid.

stmove

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:57:02 -0500

Golly how the heck can a car do that while driving at 25mph? I thought for sure it was a big rig making a Target delivery, but for a car to be driving even at 35mph and tear off axles and what not! Gosh I wonder if they were speeding like someone put liquid meth in those jello shots they had. I think it is time for a new Federal Law named "All crazy ass drivers from MD must drive SmartCars with only 2 cylinders running and pillows taped to the front bumper" (A.C.A.D.MD.D.SC.2.C.P.O.B. Bill#12.980) It would save us all so much pain.

Hillman

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:44:59 -0500

Monkey: How did I miss that stunningly stupid anti-car tirade? Hipsters with no real life experience demanding that we do away with the very vehicles that make their little hipster lives possible? And add in a little annoying self-righteousness? Damn. You stop wasting your life blogging for one or two days, and look what you miss.

nbdinz

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:31:09 -0500

oMg, is there any indication that is was TERRORISM RELATED?

IMGoph

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:26:02 -0500

wow, pants, that does not sound like fun. i watched an SUV with virginia plates (see, it isn't all marylanders!) hit a parked car pretty damn hard on belmont (between columbia and 18th) this past friday. they just backed up, pulled back into the lane, and drove off. we called the cops, gave them a description of the car and told them the plate number, left a note on the windshield telling the unlucky owner what we saw and what we did, and walked home. i hope they caught the bastards.

pants

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:02:51 -0500

I got sideswiped 3 or 4 times when I lived in adams morgan (and parked on Irving). About 6 years ago, a guy was driving a Jeep grand Cherokee and hit my parked(unoccupied) car and about 24 others on Irving and another street. I can't remember which, but he started from near the zoo and went the wrong way down either Columbia or Park after he crossed 16th. The whole thing was over a mile long and he was playing bumper cars all the way. I only lost a mirror, but the car in front of me looked like it was attempting to mate with the car in front of it. Ultimately the Marylander who did it died, but his insurance company declared the whole rampage one accident rather than 20+ accidents and sued everyone to get them to come into court to haggle over their portion of the $20k they were going to dish out. This is how I learned about a cute process called interpleader, which is when an insurance company gets to serve process on all the victims of the car crash at 8 am on a Saturday so that the idiot's insurance company (the same one as I had) can fight itself in court over how much it has to pay out.

jamie

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:02:20 -0500

Clearly, the city has taken a more aggressive stance towards parking violations during street sweeping.

AMCHRes

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:49:06 -0500

A similar fate befell a bunch of cars on 15th street in CH a few years ago. It was a Maryland driver, who hit and totaled a row of parked cars early one Saturday morning and somehow drove away (apparently leaving her bumper and license plate at the scene). When MPD is done with Tridinad, I want checkpoints around CH to keep MD drivers out.

monkeyrotica

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:34:20 -0500

See, the problem isn't that a maniac plowed into cars. The problem is that people own cars in DC. Actually, there is NO excuse to OWN a car while living in the city.

mccullo3

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:28:12 -0500

Hey... this is just more of the acceptable culture in DC. Anyone who has a problem with this is just ruining everyone's good time. Party on! Then when you get in trouble, just make something up a month later and call Metro to have them pay for your good time. Peace.

yonas

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:18:13 -0500

Looks to me that it was intentional. That's effed up.

HCE

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:06:11 -0500

Despite all the shiny new condos and coffee shops, CH is still the ghetto, plain and simple. Sorry about your property values.

fedward

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:02:28 -0500

*phew* I'm glad my car was parked north of Girard (on the southbound side, too ... gotta be ready for Tuesday street cleaning, you know). This happened to me (and only me, apparently) last Halloween on Girard halfway between 11th and 13th. At least my car wasn't totaled.

flapjack

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:41:22 -0500

McGillicuddy - it's called a love tap

ma711

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:36:46 -0500

It was, in fact, a Maryland driver that caused the damage described here (not that I'm judging). The driver and his two fellow passengers were taken away in three separate ambulances followed by police cruisers. We do not yet know what caused it (lost control of vehicle, drunk driving, who knows?) but the destruction of the 11 cars, which spanned two blocks going southbound, was pretty significant. One tire with its axle was lost from the offending vehicle itself after it smashed into the first couple cars (the Saturn lost a tire and axle, too), and then it skidded the rest of the block with sparks flying everywhere before it smashed into a line of parked cars. The impact was so severe that it pushed four cars far enough that he made himself a brand new, legal parking spot. I never saw Jim Graham show up, unusually, but the cops arrived at the scene very quickly.

ericcharlie

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:33:31 -0500

It was a pretty terrible accident. I heard it from the apartment. I can't say whether the guys were drunk or what, but witnesses said it seemed like the car exploded before it started plowing into other cars. The sounds was so loud....like a bomb. The guys in the car were completely effed up too. Seriously injured. It was crazy. The car that drove into everything was smoking.

ces12

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:30:57 -0500

lemon - saw the same thing you're talking about. Happened over a memorial day weekend. Apparently the driver in that case wasnt drunk at all.

guest number 10

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:29:05 -0500

I think I've got your suspect. While he was bringing a kidnapped homeless man to a shelter, perhaps?

dcguy20001

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:27:16 -0500

The people living in that block must be pretty sound sleepers. When out on the street there arose such a clatter, No one sprang from the bed to see what was the matter? Away to the window no one flew like a flash, No one tore open the shutters and threw up the sash? The moon on the breast of the new-broken glass Gave the lustre of mid-day to a fleeing car hitting the gas,

lemonlaug

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:27:03 -0500

There was a nearly identical scene on U St between 17th and 18th about a month ago.

McGillicuddy

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:24:14 -0500

this is proof that Maryland and Virginia drivers are terrible at parallel parking.

Reid

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:21:23 -0500

"Anyway, you just know they're from Maryland. Those people are worse than the Devil." Hmmmmm, Maryland. Cars smashed up. Middle of the night. Probably drunk driver. I think I've got your suspect.

boondoggle

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:21:17 -0500

Are any of the car owners on the Metro board? Then we can blame that unruly B2 bus again and everyone gets a nice big check. Otherwise, the car owners go to their insurance companies and rates go up. Either way (Metro out $$ or higher insurance rates), we all end up paying for this.

Vaughan

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:18:12 -0500

if marion was in the vicinity, hopefully he was on-hand to catch the number of the bus then helpfully assist the owner of each damaged vehicle into his one-month timewarp machine. i, for one, fully suspect an out of control pack of segway (seque?) menaces on this one. check for very small seg-tire tracks.

Carl3000

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:14:55 -0500

Obviously another mutant has escaped from the lab

Mojotron

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:14:00 -0500

Never should've given Fenty that SmartCar

monkeyrotica

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:10:56 -0500

What the hell compelled that person to do that? I'd say either drunk driver, joyriding kids, or both. Anyway, you just know they're from Maryland. Those people are worse than the Devil.

Sneezy

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:10:13 -0500

Dear God! I live a block from the carnage--how do you even go about doing something like that? I mean, seriously, it's one thing for there to be a hit and run, but torn up axles? Really? Did a T-Rex get pissed or something?

wonderwazz

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:09:56 -0500

maybe it was a Maryland driver that didn't even realize they hit anything

tvc15

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:06:55 -0500

Same thing happened to my friend. We came out of a concert venue to find his car totaled. Witnesses saw a drunk minivan driver crash headfirst into his car, back up and then sideswipe it hard as he sped away. That really sucks. I hope they catch the fucker.

Jaynuze

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:06:43 -0500

This had to have been a very large auto to do so much damage... possibly a DC owned auto?

jrraddy

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:04:22 -0500

Was it as drunk driver or Marion Barry running from the Feds after a drug buy?

IMGoph

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:04:05 -0500

this has to be malicious, right? no one could possibly damage that many cars to that extent purely by accident.

Dauragon

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:03:23 -0500

god DAYUM!! What the hell compelled that person to do that?

Heather Goss

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:00:50 -0500

Ugh, I walked past the scene this morning, and it looks even worse in person. Front axels completly ripped in half and laying in the street. Most of the owners were out with their cars by then, taking pictures of the wreckage. One poor guy, whose auto must have been a rental car, was angrily pleading with someone on his cell, clearly getting hosed, big time.

NotoriousREG

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:59:22 -0500

That is so messed up. Wow.

guest number 10

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:58:21 -0500

It's cool, just call metro and blame the B2. In a month.

Everett

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:55:37 -0500

That really royally sucks. I saw something like that on new year's eve back in 2002 or so, and was astonished that the driver kept going, like he was on his own personal demolition derby.