NEWS! Freak Accident on Grant Street

I was poking my head into the freezer when a most ungodly noise erupted from down the block. My roommate Salli and I went out and lo and behold, there was maroon 4-door probably early 90s model car sandwiched smack between the telephone pole at the corner of Grant and State Street and the green transformer box in the garden area of the green apartment house on the corner. For all the world it looked like it had been dropped from the sky. By the time we arrived (about 30 seconds after the noise), crowds lined the street on all four corners. Someone in the audience who claimed to have a gun was told by another audience member that they should take off before the cops got there.

What had happened was most likely a blown-out tire, though the driver of the car was thinking thoughts of a shot-out tire because of a flash of light he had seen at the time of the explosion. None of the passengers were hurt, and the driver and front seat passenger were surprisingly lucid and calm. The police and fire department arrived quickly and examined the situation. I can only imagine that the car glanced the telephone pole, leaped onto the garden container, then slid backwards and to the side a little after smashing into the transformer box. This is the only explanation I can think of for how it might have wound up literally pinned between the pole AND the transformer box.

I'm not really sure what exactly the green box is. It looks like nothing but a transformer box, but none of the nearby power appeared to be out. The firemen were primarily concerned with it as soon as they arrived. I snapped a photo, so here it is for all of you to see, since the car is already about to be towed away.

Then 10 minutes into the debacle, right in front of our house, the firemen converged and appeared to be assisting two bicyclists, one of whom was lying on the ground apparently in distress. At this point, Salli inquired whether our livingroom chairs had seatbelts. CHAOS HAD TAKEN OVER!!! Good golly.

UPDATE: The green box is a telephone company box, so local residents may have a tricksy time with phones as repair occurs over the next day or two. The towing job is being complicated by a large amount of gas leaking from the car. The bicyclist and his companion are on the way to the hospital to make sure his jaw is not broken. We wish them luck and a healthy jaw!!! Good thing all those paramedics happened to be loitering around.

Photos (c)2006 by Michelle Souliere.