Wife says "we're outta here" another accident, pics

[lendaddy]

We live on what initially appears to be a beautiful curve. You know, the kind where the trees create an awning over the street. Well we call it "Death Curve". Another bad one last night and the wife has had it. There are some pics and a video by my local NBC affiliate below. This is not uncommon, I live a half mile from Grand Valley State University, and the kids run the gaunlet here on a regular basis. Not sure what to do, more on that later.

Anyway this kid walked away!!!!!!! Unbelieveable!!!! I was not home (buddy called last minute to do dinner or I would have been parked right there arriving home almost at that moment) and neither was my wife/child. My neigbor snapped these pics for us (the older gentleman in the video). Anyway, enjoy.

Video -- http://video.woodtv.com/index.php?video_id=474

Pics--

[widebody911]

Holy *****!

[lendaddy]

A little more to this one, the kid missed the curve, hit a boulder at the end of my drive, went airborne and clipped the tree (second to do exactly this so far, even same tree) then rotated and flipp upside down5 feet from my garage door. Probably doing 55+ MPH !!!!

Oh yea, 8 feet from the SC in the garage!

First pic shows the luck bastard in the white tanktop.

Best I can figure he's telling the cop how the beauty of my vanagon fixated his eyes and paralyzed his muscles

[RickM]

Wow, he almost parked that Escape in you garage!
Other than installing a barrier maybe one of those portable radar/speed displays the cops put up can help.

[lendaddy]

Few more pics. Oh yea, it was a minivan.

[cegerer]

What a friggin' loser ... I'm sure he's explaining how he was just traveling at normal speeds when the car suddenly veered and crashed.

Len, I don't know if this made the news over there but in a nearby county (Lapeer) last week, there were 9 teenagers killed in 2 crashes that occurred within 20 minutes of each other. One was a drunk driving the car and the other was a young girl traveling at over 100MPH on a 2 laner ..... well, until the sudden stop caused by the tree she hit (see my post 2 weeks ago on Michigan's new 110MPH speed limit).

[Jeff964]

Maybe, the driver will say that the large tree jumped in front of his car and the roots flipped his car over.

[id10t]

I live on a similar curve, out in the country. First year we were there had 8 people go thru my fence and stop at the big oak trees. First guy died, second guy walked away, 3rd guy was the 2nd guy and more scared of what daddy was gonna do to him than the cops (they took 2 hours to show...), the rest were all minor. Alcohol was only involved in the 2nd and 3rd - and it was the *same guy*. 40, living at home with parents... the first where the guy died was a anger thing and he didn't know the road curved. Rest were weather related.

[lendaddy]

There have been 45 in the last 5 years. Now keep in mind these are only the NON alcohol related accidents (on a college access road).

My wife seriously wants to move, what do I do? I'm in no position financially to do anything. I can tell her no, but she's sorta right. We have a 15 month old and another on the way. I have no backyard, just a stream and my 3 acres of woods. The kids gotta play somewhere.

[Superman]

Whoa! Frankly, I agree with your wife.

[Superman]

Like I say, I agree with her. When this is over, you'll probably have found a place you like even better, lots of room, make plenty of dough on the sale of this house, etc. Life is short. Don't compromise.

[cstreit]

Maybe you can invest in a Bobcat or tree mover to create a "barrier" of sorts?

[rcecale]

Might be cheaper (And a helluva lot more fun ) to just install and man one of these, aimed right into the curve...



Randy

[M.D. Holloway]

Len, you gotta get outa that place. Way bad MoJo! It is really never a good time too move and you never have enough money but that being said, that could have occured with you or your wife with kids pulling out of the drive. That ***** an't worth it. Next time, you might get a ricer coming through the family room window...

[legion]

When I was going to look at the F150 I ended up buying I was driving the 944. The previous owner lived out in the country. It was lightly raining. I came over a hump in the road doing 30 and at the bottom was a 25 mph sign. I came over another hump and all of the sudden the road curved left...by "curved" I mean the road made an "L". Think of it like a four-way stop but with only two sides. I hit the brakes and I still couldn't make the turn going 20. I ended up in some guys front lawn (thankfully his front lawn was so big that you couldn't actually see the house from the street). To this day I think I would have had to almost come to a complete stop to make the turn...25 mph my @$$!

[jyl]

That's crazy. I guess in your shoes I would talk to the local police/city govt about trying some traffic calming measures. If they don't work, then I'd want barriers or to move. The next dimwit could kill someone.

Edit: Thinking about this more - suppose you had big-ass speed bumps at the entrance and exit of that curve, and freeway-type guard rails along the front of your property (in front of which which you can always plant greenery), and finally you curved the driveway so that it isn't a perfect tangent to the curve (I'm thinking, move the driveway entrance off to the left of the property, viewing toward the street, then have the driveway curve around to the garage). Would that give you enough protection? You might be able to get whatever agency is responsible for that road to install the guardrails and bumps. If there have been so many accidents on that curve, the agency is on notice of a dangerous road condition, and when someone gets killed the lawyers are going to come a-calling . . .

[Groesbeck Hurricane]

I'm so very HAPPY that your family was not directly involved in this!!!

Your wife has a good point. These wrecks seem to happen all too often where you are. I bet road bumps would slow people down or get them airborne sooner so barriers in your area would stop them.

Putting up metal barriers identifies your property as a crash zone. I put in 12" high, 8' deep gardens in front of my parents house when the cars started going over the curb there. The soft dirt stops vehicles and the 12" high wood causes much damage to their vehicles and was cheap for me to replace.

Take care of your family!

[lendaddy]

Originally posted by cstreit
Maybe you can invest in a Bobcat or tree mover to create a "barrier" of sorts?

I have actually given that a little thought. I live on a hill and I could get creative will a raised are over there and a plank or stone wall. You'de really have to see it to understand I guess.

Fininacially I am jacked though. Here is a brief synopsis of my tale of woe.

Captains log, stardate 3 years ago:

Me..family business...stable at an OK wage for 15 years. Alway feels like the big break is just over the horizon. Optimistic as hell.

Wife: A total asskicker, works for a large company doing advertising and marketing. Kicking ass and taking names, promoted every few months, great raises, benefits, making some sweet moolah with Uncle Rico. Future is so bright she has the wear shades.

Then: Company she works for moves to evil Cali,offers her a great package to go but we decline as she has great contacts here. A couple months later and she is pregnant. Starts a business out of the house (doing OK, but not even close to before) then..... We plant another seed this lil fella is due in October (translation... forget about wife supplting any real income for a while).

So over the last couple years we have had to liquidate most all of our assets and investments just to live and make payments. I already had a second on the house (from living like rockstars when things were rolling) so equity is nill. Anyway, I make no excuses, I made my bed, but it doesn't change the fact that I am not in a positin to go house shopping

Damn, now I need a beer.

[jyl]

I like the mound of dirt idea - more decorative than guard rails and not expensive.

I understand where you are financially. We also went from two established careers and no kids to one new career and two kids with some expensive intervening years of graduate school. No so easy.

[legion]

There's a T intersection in my town where a major road ends in a subdivision. Speed limit is 35mph. For some reason, people don't realize the road ends (and that there is a stop sign) and regularly skid to a stop in the middle of the intersection. About a year ago, a drunk driver was going 100mph+ down this street and drove his pickup truck right into the house facing the intersection. His pickup truck caught fire, he died, and the house suffered major fire damage. Thankfully the home owners were in the kitchen at the back of the house at the time, otherwise they would have died.

I bring this up because the homeowners had complained to the city multiple times about vehicles failure to stop. They even tried to erect a barrier and the city told them that if they did, they would be liable for any damage caused by a driver hitting their property.