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Guy drives into several cars in the North End, tries to run away, is grabbed by bystanders
By adamg on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 11:58pm
Ben Agrawal, who took the photo, supplies this report on an incident in the North End shortly before 10 p.m.:
The guy smashed into several cars on Richmond Street and attempted to cross Hanover and drive off towards Salem. Made it to the corner of Parmenter and Salem. Front axle was broken and he couldn't get any further. The guy then tried to get away on foot, running back towards Hanover and the scene of the original accident (idiot) and was tackled by a group and held until BPD officers arrived. Caused a large panic when he initially hit the first car with a loud bang and tried to barrel across Hanover (terrorism fears I'm sure)
He reports that, amazingly, there were no injuries, although one woman was very upset - she may have narrowly missed being crushed between two of the cars.
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Comments
Ban cars from the main
Ban cars from the main streets of the north end. Especially during warm weather weekends. There is no room for them and maniac drivers like this further drive the point home that they do not belong in such a neighborhood. They already shut down streets for festivals all the time. Just keep it that way.
I wouldn't consider Richmond
I wouldn't consider Richmond Street a main street of the North End. And because of all the congestion, we don't get too many "maniac" drivers here. I'm guessing this guy was drunk or high or both since he tried to run away, which wouldn't necessarily be fixed by closing down the streets to car traffic - if you're not going to obey the law not to drive under the influence, what makes you more likely to obey the law not to drive into a pedestrian only area?
Bollards.
Bollards.
UGGGGGH
You and your "not wanting to see innocent pedestrians mangled and killed" agenda again! Can't you pedestrocentric Luddites accept the fact that terrible drivers are just a fact of life like hurricanes and shark attacks, that there is no way possible to ensure that people have some basic competence and skill at driving a car, and join Mayor Walsh in accepting that a few deaths a month are an inevitable price to pay for the ability to whizz across the city in only 45 minutes
never forget....
that people love their cars.
Loving cars is okay
Tolerating death and mayhem for love? Nope.
What?!?....You've got to be kidding!
Even one or two deaths via an errant, hostile, aggressive or careless automobile are too many! there was no excuse for the automobile driver in question here driving so aggressively and erratically, especially in a congested area such as the North End, or in densely populated urban areas, generally.
Or are you just being snarky here. If you're being snarky, I'll just say that it's not a funny joke that you're making here. If, on the other hand, you're serious, then you're seriously in need of an attitude adjustment.
they're being sarcastic to
they're being sarcastic to prove a point...
Banning Cars on the Main Streets
I think we should ban the tourists from roaming in the middle of the streets and blocking the sidewalks and traffic. They are a bigger impediment to both pedestrians and vehicles. BTW idiot the streets are blocked for FOUR weekends in August (two at the opposite end of Hanover St , one on North and Fleet Sts, and the final one on Endicott and Thatcher St.
How about this?
These streets weren't built for motor vehicles. Cars are guests.
If entitled drivers trash the place, we need to respect the design and revert to its original purpose: a place for people.. There is very little in the North End that isn't more than a couple of blocks from the circumferential roadways. Grant an exemption for handicap permits and close it down to cars at peak hours.
These roads were made for pedestrians. Remember that. There is no right to drive. Remember that, too. Vehicle use makes places inhospitable to use by vastly greater numbers of humans than can fit in those boxes. Remember that.
Originally made for horses.
Originally made for horses. Perhaps we should bring them back.
Nope
No, there were not a lot of horses in early Boston. People walked. Even Paul Revere had to borrow a horse from a friend outside the city to ride to Concord.
Cows though
Early streets had to be wide enough for a cow to walk, you can see remnants of these incredibly narrow alleyways in nooks and crannies of the North End.
But they've always been filled with this
Horse's asses
One way or another
Streets
Were originally built for horses, not pedestrians. Stepping out into the streets got you buried knee-deep in mud and horse crap if you were lucky, trampled into the said mud and horse crap if you were not.
Internal combustion engine- best invention ever
There is a hockey stick upwards in human population since the invention of the internal combustion engine. It was the best thing that ever happened to us.
Causation vs Correlation
See chart.
But anyhow -- over population is a bad thing.
Car-haters favor human extinction
aside from that, the people who live in and visit the north end obviously favor cars, lots of them.
Aren't you adorable
Not to mention, clueless, too. You must have visited an italian restaurant once, driving in from your fave suburb.
Uncluedorable?
Other things happened at around the same time.
Wouldn't you say that the Haber process, which came into being at approximately the same time as the internal combustion engine, deserves more credit than the internal combustion engine?
Best thing ever to happen to us?
I'm going movable type.
Leaving the scene of property
Leaving the scene of property damage isn't an arrestable offense. (Thanks legislators!) Unless the BPD is charging him with something else (maybe assault by means or disturbing the peace), they may have had to summons this loser to court.
Any word on if he was arrested?
um?
is reckless endangerment a thing?
Mayhem
Wouldn't this be considered mayhem?
He was detained by police
Will try to find out tomorrow what he was charged with.
DUI?
Any word on charges? The BPD News site has a public journal with incidents from last weekend, and there is a listing of an incident of operating under the influence of alcohol right around the time and place of this crash -- 9:53PM, North St.
Can confirm
Yup, not a crime. My car was nearly totaled in a similar accident a few years back, (eerily similar, actually--car took out 4 parked cars, driver tried to flee on a broken axle but didn't get far) and it was like pulling teeth to get the cops to cooperate. Only thing that saved us was the OUI charge they eventually slapped on her.
Pulling teeth cause they had
Pulling teeth cause they had no right of arrest?
What did you want them to do? Violate her civil rights and arrest her? They couldn't just for causing property damage.
Terrorism waiting to happen
While Hanover Street is mostly packed with parked cars, the valet and handicapped areas are open and just an invitation for Islamic terrorism, especially with people eating at open windows. I was there last week and asked for a different table.
FTFY
After all, the Fed building didn't completely reconfigure its relationship to Summer St. due to the actions of an Islamic terrorist - domestic terrorists are a big issue in the US that simply isn't talked about enough.
In any case, the mitigations are similar.
Domestic terrorists
Have specific targets, not a bunch of innocent folks in the street.
Okay
Care to share that wisdom with people who were waiting with their children in the Murrah Building to get birth certificates and social security numbers?
http://kfor.com/2015/04/16/woman-whose-leg-was-amputated-in-bombing-rubb...
OHHH, now I get it
If the terrorist is pissed off at their tax bill or some environmental regulation, it's OK for them to kill, take hostages, and occupy land, etc.
But if the terrorist is angry for some religious reason it's actually a bad thing and worthy of war.
Thanks for clearing it up.
I can't tell if you're being
I can't tell if you're being serious or joking, but if the former, I pity you.
A sensible approach to risk...
Do yourself a favor and look into the number of people killed per year by "ordinary" flu, by bathtub slip-and-fall accidents, by drunk drivers, and by terrorists, and reconsider where you're going to expend your finite amount of risk mitigation effort.
Very Concerning
Had just ordered dinner with my family at Vinoteca di Monica when this went down in front of open windows. The streets were so full Saturday night - we assumed people were hurt, especially when someone pulled the fire alarm presumably to get help right away.
Whether or not the driver was drunk, he was bombing down a tiny street on the busiest night. Continued to smash cars as people were yellling for him to stop. I watched him drive by as a number of people chased down his huge pickup truck trying to stop further fiasco.
Driver was probably in his late 20s. Needs to lose his license and spend some time in jail. Restaurant staff and others recognized him as a customer and were calling him by name to stop as he continued to plow toward Hanover street intersection.
A lot of us assumed the worst. So lucky nobody was hurt. This is somebody who definitely needs a life intervention. Probably not a first judging from his actions. Could not eat that night. Killed my appetite.