local car accidents and the theory of unnotability-by-association

[edenfalling]

As I was walking to work Thursday morning, I saw a #10 bus drive past me on Tioga St. That was odd, because the #10 is supposed to turn off Tioga on Court St., not continue down to Falls St. But I figured maybe the driver was taking a slightly sideways route back to the TCAT garage on Willow St.

About five minutes later, another #10 bus went past, also on Tioga St.

When I got down to Court St. myself, I saw a police SUV parked across the turn into Linn St., blocking any traffic from passing. So I figured someone had gone around the turn too fast and crashed, and that TCAT was therefore rerouting the #10 to reach the Stewart/University intersection from a different direction.

I was right about the busses, but not quite right about the accident. Instead of someone taking the Court St. turn too fast, someone was driving down University Ave. too fast, crashed through the guardrail, and fell down the embankment to hit two houses on Linn.

The accident made the front page of the Ithaca Journal today.

I always feel weird when something I have 'seen' myself gets into the news -- I tend to feel that my life is deeply boring (mostly by choice!) and therefore any event I am so much as on the fringes of must be boring by association. And boring things don't make the news.

Funny how egocentric my worldview can be sometimes. *wry*

Comments

[monkey5s.livejournal.com]

I have to tell you, I clicked the link to see the article, and was amazed at the photo. But the top four comments on the page, when I read it, included this gem: "I feel for the driver, I too have a hard time parallel parking."

I did not enjoy snorting my coffee up my nose. But, it didn't stop me continuing to laugh, as I looked at the picture again, and reread the description of the car landing on its side, between the houses.

[edenfalling]

Parallel parking, eh? *shakes head* What will they come up with next?

[willowgreen.livejournal.com]

I don't know how many bazillion times my mother drove me down University Avenue when I was a kid -- I still occasionally have dreams about being in an out-of-control car on it (not that my mom's car was ever out of control!) -- but as far as I know, this is the first time a car's ever plunged through the guard rail like that. So maybe that makes it ipso facto not boring.

Still, stories like this one remind me what a truly small town Ithaca is -- if a crash like that happened around here, I can pretty much guarantee that the local paper's Web site wouldn't feature 13 pictures of the crash from different angles and identify the guy from the towing company who was directing the cleanup. That's the kind of realization that makes me extremely nostalgic.

[edenfalling]

I tend not to think of the hills as serious hazards, probably because I also grew up in a hilly area and am therefore inured to slopes and guardrails... but every now and then there's a crash and I think, oh yeah, brakes are important, aren't they. *wry*

My old hometown only had a weekly local paper -- the main two local-ish ones were more regional, as the greater NYC metro area tends to blur together rather than retaining firm local identities the way Ithaca does -- but yeah, the regional papers would not have considered this accident worthy of more than a one-inch mention in a side column. The Madison Eagle, on the other hand, might have given it an actual article... but not on the front page.

I think this crash only made the cover because it was a slow news day and crashes always make for interesting photos -- rubbernecking is a nearly universal human response. :-)