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SUV takes out Huntington Avenue hair-braiding place
By adamg on Sun, 08/16/2015 - 12:28pm
Julio Salado happened upon this SUV inside Nana's Hair Braiding on Huntington Avenue at South Huntington around 10:45 a.m.
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Comments
No ice, rain, snow ...
What's the reason this time? (other than massive intersection design fail and "driver error")
Here is a couple obvious
Here is a couple obvious possibilities-speeding, drunk, distracted driving (ie texting), etc.
I used to work near that intersection
Yeah, those are possible. It still happens far too often for all the reasons that other commenters have mentioned.
The tendency to say "victim blaming"
With bike accidents but never auto accidents is baffling. I've lived here for four years (and driven for 20, without a ticket ever, or an accident since i was 17). The number of times I've taken a right turn (quickly aborted) onto a one way street because there just wasn't a sign is staggering and NEVER happened anywhere else - and I've lived all over the US and driven for hundreds of thousands of miles. Meanwhile, people tut-tut about why truck drivers don't respect the non-DOT compliant "CARS OLNY" (sic) signs on the river roads. Hint - you often can't see them before you're committed to getting on the road.
The truck was probably at fault today, looking at the intersection, but, per Boston SOP, the intersection looks like a shitshow as well.
This is pretty close to the
This is pretty close to the spot the fire engine crashed into a building.
I don't get to that area much- is there a common cause or something really strange there? Or just randomness?
And it's at the end of that stretch of S. Huntington
Where cars and their inattentive drivers are forever wiping out on the trolley tracks in the rain. Except it was pretty dry this morning.
Inattentive drivers
Inattentive drivers proceeding north on S Huntington probably don't realize that Huntington makes a sharp right right there, and proceed straight. There's an island there to guide traffic, with a couple of left-pointing chevrons on it. I daresay it could probably use some better and more obvious signage, like a double-ended arrow or something. (MUTCD W1-7, if you wanna go look it up.)
I'm not one to make excuses for people who fail to pay attention to road conditions, but it seems to me that improved signage is relatively low-cost as these things go and may help.
If that's a high-accident area, some bollards near the curb to arrest wayward vehicles might improve pedestrian safety right there. Large, heavy planters might be more attractive, if there's room there and there are resources available to maintain the landscaping.
bikergeek, I think you're being generous.
You're right in that the signage on that corner stinks. But on a dry day, I can't imagine how someone could fail to see the building in his way.
If it's the driver's fault, then speed and inattention had to be factors. The only way it could not be the drivers fault would be if another driver cut him off/shoved him out of a lane, and that's pretty easy to imagine.
Your idea about the bollards is good. I go out of my way, quite literally, to avoid crossing near that corner. One of my jobs is near there, and I'd appreciate the protection.
Good idea about fortifying
Good idea about fortifying the curb with planters. Unfortunately, the sidewalk there is already pretty cramped--and was damned near impassable this winter.
We could put up "don't drive
We could put up "don't drive into this building" signs everywhere. Or we could actually take safety seriously and take away the license of people who have shown they can't drive safely. The latter seems more practical.
A bit more than simple inattention - allegedly
Driver charged with OUI.
Lucky
that they didn't hit a pedestrian, car, or bike. Can't quite figure out where they were coming from. Down South Huntington and didn't make the turn?
I'm shocked, shocked...
...at the OUI. Damn that building for not getting out of the way.
Shoulda been wearing...
... brighter more reflective clothing.
Fire engine that crashed
had bad brakes and was descending an insanely steep hill on Parker Hill Ave. No real relationship to anything that happens at the flat intersection of Huntington and South Huntington.
The trolley tracks in the road
from Brigham Circle to Heath Street make a tough street (Huntington to S.Huntington) even tougher. That coupled with the Death Race 3000 mentality that seems to prevail along that stretch makes for foolish lane changing, folks pulling into the oncoming lane to pass even as the 39 bus bears down on them. This intersection is terrible. I avoid it like the plague preferring to drive over Mission Hill to Longwood any day
oh no - and they had just put
oh no - and they had just put up a digital screen in that window, too. I live in the area and cross this intersection every day. It's definitely terrible, and while people turning left onto Rt 9 seem to be confused about whether to turn before or after the poorly-placed island, it would really take some serious distraction to plow all the way into the storefront. My guess is texting/browsing, especially at that time of day.
There's a car crash in this
There's a car crash in this pic?