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Driver slams into house on Washington Street in Roslindale

Car up on front steps of house at Washington and Wellesmere

Photo by a roving UHub photographer.

A driver ran his or her car into the front steps of a triple decker at 4436 Washington St. at Wellsmere Road in Roslindale around 5:40 p.m. on Wednesday. The car's air bags went off and ISD was requested to check the structural integrity of the building.

That's the same intersection where two drivers collided in November, sending one vehicle into a tree and flipping the other on its roof.

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Comments

5:40 *AM* ??

Or are you saying we have time to go watch this happen? :)

No, it was yesterday evening.

Fixed, yes, the crash was Wednesday.

Washington Street in Rozzie is one of the worst streets to walk, bike, bus, or drive on in Boston. Rampant lawlessness, speeding, and aggressive driving make me avoid it at all costs. Even in a car, it's scary how other people disregard the law and safety of others. Something needs to be done!

I walk Washington Street from the Square to Forest Hills (and vice versa) regularly and don't have problems. Honestly, speeding at 5:40 pm weekdays is close to impossible. I'm not usually up by Wellsmere excepting the odd walk to the hardware store. I never drive that stretch due to there being congestion between Albano Street and the Square on a constant basis. How this car ended up hitting the house is a head scratcher.

That said, it would be nice if BPD had enough officers to have a traffic enforcement division. It kind of, sort of pays for itself (except that the fines are not allowed to go directly to the BPD lest enforcement become revenue collection.)

We have enough cops. They are “busy” taking naps at construction sites collecting overtime.

They are over 10% below what is considered level staffing. Those napping cops are now usually retirees.

Read the Bpd log. There is a crash every half hour.

We need automated video enforcement. It is far from impossible to speed at 5:40pm. I drive the speed limit and I get tailgated the whole way.

...maybe everyone's life would be easier if you just keep up with the car in front of you.

More car brain speedway thinking.

Statistically, crashes are more survivable if the vehicle is going 25 miles per hour or less.

Rule #1: Travel with the flow of traffic.

…. of the lemmings.

But if there is an issue with speeding- and sorry, only in your world are you going 25-30 on Washington Street in Roslindale during rush hour and getting tailgated- getting a traffic enforcement squad together could help deal with it.

When I drive 25 miles per hour, I am tailgated. Always. Doesn't matter when or where in the city of Boston. It could be the wee hours of the morning and some rando will appear, tailgate me until the least safe moment and pass me.

Rush hour is not wall to wall cars throughout the length of Washington Street in Roslindale. Just because you can't run the light because someone ahead of you stops does not mean the traffic is heavy.

Rush hour is packed along Washington Street in Roslindale. If you actually drove down that street at rush hour at 25 you'd be tailgating the car in front of you.

I have ridden my bike there on Washington street at 5pm. The only problem was all the cars in the bus lane.

The cars in the bus lane only annoy me in that it keeps the buses from utilizing it, but on a bike, it's a minor inconvenience. There's still the bike lane.

I've never biked up by where this happened. Then again, there is no bus lane at that point. Just noting.

If enforcement degenerates to revenue collection then the Socialists’ drive to install gestapo traffic cameras must have them salivating over the scheme. I for one don’t want an automated hand holding drivers by the scruffs of our neck supplanting good judgement with fear. Freedom isn’t free and we would be trading liberty and freedom for a hope of marginal safety. This compulsion so-called progressives have with controlling the lives and speech of others makes democracy untenable.

If this is a cut-through road and the abutters are unduly burdened then can through traffic be de-incentivized?

How about instead, I use my own money, earned from working and investing the Capitalist way, to rent a front loader and plop some concrete barriers down in the middle of Washington Street. Those barriers are my expression of the dangers of road, and the guberment can’t stop my freedom of expression!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously though, why are you conflating an economic system with totalitarianism? You don’t have a right to break the law. Camera enforcement on public land doesn’t invade your privacy.

We all just want drivers to start obeying the law and to stop killing us.

Bicyclists too for all the red lights they constantly run endangering everyone.

… of that silly attitude?

Your envy of cyclists is showing. It interferes with your common sense. If you actually have some.

You don’t to get to decide what laws are ok to break and what laws are not ok. Running a red light on a bike in MA is illegal and the offender should be punished for breaking the law just like a motor vehicle.

You don’t to get to decide what laws are ok to break and what laws are not ok.

Red Hat says what?

… should I decide to run for public office?

Not to worry. I’ll still represent your best interests by not supporting waste of public resources on enforcement of poorly written laws that impede the advancement of livable streets and public safety in our fair city.
Rest easy, my friend.

should be punished for breaking the law just like a motor vehicle

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaha

OMG

Hahahahahahahahahhahaha

Yes, that is a thing that definitely happens

Anything else you want to swing and miss on thinking you made a brilliant point?

You came into a thread about an idiot driver hitting a house all hot and bothered about a hypothetical bike.

Your scrolling skills are on par with your reading comprehension.

Can you document the last time any car was cited for running a red light?

The last time someone riding a bike caused major damage to a house?

https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIV/Chapter85/Sect...

How does a bike causing any damage to anything have to do with breaking the law?! If you want the laws changed talk to your legislator to sponsor a bill on your behalf.

… in New Hampshire that prohibits serving alcohol to a Red Indian. Would you think it worth legislator’s time, robo, to jump through all the hoops and untangle red tape to have it removed? Do you think anyone in NH is using this law to refuse to serve anyone identifying as First Nations?

I suppose there might be value in removing it as a gesture of sorts towards ending bigotry and discrimination.

Do you not see the correlation between this law and some traffic laws though? Cops rightly don’t consider it worth their while to pursue people on bikes crossing intersections in ways that annoy some drivers. They understand that there is zero to very little risk to the public when cyclists run red lights. They also know that this strategy makes streets safer for cyclists as well as makes cycling more efficient and thus more appealing to people. Many of whom drive instead. It’s in everyone’s best interest to get as many cars off the road as possible. Making cycling safe and efficient is part of that.

If it makes you feel better, someone pointed out a Lamborghini to me yesterday near the Pru. I admit it was somewhat impressive to look at.

It’s incumbent on is to effectively promote a moral and good society, and automated enforcement short-circuits the pressure and dynamic for citizens to behave morally and for society to be morally oriented. Traffic cameras cause the “moral muscles” to atrophy and debases the relationship between citizens. Traffic cameras are not progress they are an indicator we are on the wrong path.

It seems that you want to pretend that speeding is a moral act because of traffic flow. But science shows that it safer to slow down. Science also shows that people will not follow traffic laws unless they are being observed by either an officer or a camera. It is hypocritical to argue that cameras will reduce morality that you apparently don't have.

There were once speed traps on Hyde Park Ave on a regular basis. Yes, I got caught in one, but it was my own fault. It did slow me down.

I will reiterate that truly speeding on Washington Street between West Roxbury Parkway and, well, downtown between 4:30 and 6:30 weekdays is next to impossible, despite what some people who enjoy making things up might think.

Get out your smart phone and measure the speed since you walk there all the time. This is your problem. You constantly lecture people on things without any proof or reference to fact. It is one thing to reasonably believe something that is wrong, but you are so bumptious about it.

You typically make things up. I've called you on it before.

The reality is that I know Washington Street in Roslindale and you don't. Just like how you don't know Readville from bumpkiss.

Why can't you measure the speed, since you are there all the time?

I am in Readville at least twice a month during rush hour. It is enough to see that you are exaggerating.

Stop making pronouncements and get some actual facts.

What have I ever made up? Seems like projection.

Absolutely priceless!

/sarcasm

Just use "they" to include everyone. Even the transphobic NYT has added singular they to their styleguide. When trans and nonbinary people see this antiquated "his or her" stuff, we can tell this isn't a space that includes us.

It must be exhausting to constantly play the victim.

Really???

Trans people don't have to "play the victim", they have to live it every day. What is it about comfortable people like you that you can't accept that oppression is real?

If I'm not sure of someone's gender, I will either write "they" or "them" until/unless that gender is clearly identified - and if someone doesn't identify with him or her, I'm fine with it.

Language is thought and the policing of language is the policing of thought.

Sometimes “they” is natural in speech, but “he, or she” is not cumbersome in this case it is utilitarian. “He, or she,” signals the author does not have the facts, or may be withholding information, but the latter is always stated, whereas, “they,” is multiply burdened including ambiguity about a writer’s choice and use of “they.”

“He, or she,” “s/he,” “they” are all fine if used naturally, or stylistically.

the policing of language is the policing of though

]

Wow. This subthread just broke my irony meter. In the same subthread as someone accusing trans people of "playing the victim" -- a false accusation -- we have you doing it for real, claiming that someone is "policing" either your language or your thought, as if such a thing were possible.

You really are something else.

I’m not replying to the “playing the victim” entry/reply, just the word usage entry from “this isn’t 1952.” I use “they” where appropriate, but “he, or she” is absolutely fine in 2025 (with the exception of being rude to someone by deliberately using a non-favored pronoun.) Pronouns are bio-linguistically hard-wired and amending style guides is not as useful as human understanding, interpersonal amiability and forgiveness for honoring each other as people and everybody getting along.

The only statement I made was that if I wasn't sure of gender, or if someone chose not to use or does not identify with either gender, I use "they/them." I do my very best not to police or correct other people's language, pronouns, punctuation or grammar (although I'm very tempted to at times ;-) )

or maybe just predictably:

“He, or she,” signals the author does not have the facts, or may be withholding information, but the latter is always stated, whereas, “they,” is multiply burdened including ambiguity about a writer’s choice and use of “they.

...i have no idea what you're trying to say here. one word is somehow ambiguous compared to three words that you admit mean the same thing?

… or you’re doing parody.

First Marcella Street, now this.

Those damn bike lanes strike again!

I live on Wellsmere and I’m tired of the street being used as a cut through. I can barely get out of my of my driveway at rush hour. This has been an ongoing issue since I moved here in 2018 where cars try to make a left turn on to Washington, unsuccessfully. The city does nothing about it. Wellsmere should be a dead end street and Washington should be heavily policed.

Was the house wearing a helmet?

Roslindale for some reason has a rash of house crashes nasty ones.

jumping houses.

… where are their parents?