April 19, 2007
View Comments | Post CommentMotorcade Of DEATH
Two nights ago, Jeanette and I suddenly heard a ton of police sirens, followed shortly by two very loud crunch noises. We jumped up to the window and realized we were watching the immediate aftermath of a traffic incident.
The first thing I noticed was a police car, lights still flashing, the front end of which was wrapped around a traffic signal pole. Then I noticed what appeared to be an entirely separate accident; a red Jeep Cherokee was beside a large Budget truck, the Cherokee's front end buried underneath the Budget truck's bed. There were also a bunch of additional cop cars speeding past this accident like it hadn't just happened five seconds ago. We heard an officer yell out, "Contain this area! The rest of us will continue!" We knew this was going to be juicy.
Upon first seeing the accident, my impulse was to dial 911. And I did. But before it ever rang, I realized that the six or so police cars that had been traveling with the wrecked one probably had it covered. And we watched.
The police officer got out of the wrecked car, and seemed to be fine. We could see that the Cherokee's windshield was smashed on the driver's side (against the Budget truck), but its passenger-side front tire had burst. No one appeared to be moving inside.
Eventually, we saw the driver move around. I don't know whether he was conscious or not before then, but he started moving, and eventually chatting with the driver of the Budget truck. At that point, I went out to take pictures of the crazy cop car wrapped around a pole, and to find out what happened. The drivers of the cop car, the Cherokee, and the Budget truck were all fine by the end, though the Cherokee driver's ankle was injured and he was limping. Here's what I found out about the accident:
There was a motorcade of some sort coming South on 16th Street NW. As it approached the intersection with V St. NW, the light was red for the motorcade. But it didn't stop. The Cherokee, which had a green light and was merely going straight onto V St. NW, came into the path of the first of the oncoming police cruisers. It collided with the Cherokee.
After the collision, the police car ricocheted off the Cherokee and directly into the light pole. The Cherokee was hit so hard that it spun 270 degrees before lodging itself beneath the Budget truck.
So, basically, government fucks over yet another of its citizens. Just so that Dick Cheney or whomever could get home thirty seconds faster, this motorcade plowed into a citizen who was, unlike our leaders, law-abiding. We started speculating as to whom would pay the claim. Would the city pay the Cherokee driver's expenses? Would his insurance have to cover it? Would his rates go up solely as the result of the police motorcade's mistake?
Posted at April 19, 2007 4:09 AM | Comments (8)
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Posted by: Jacob at April 19, 2007 10:06 AM
Wow, what a coincidence that Radley just posted that as well. I'll just say, "Ditto" to what he said.
Posted by: David Barzelay at April 19, 2007 1:57 PM
Get real, experience say NO ONE is going to pay for this claim - except those innocent citizens involved.
Posted by: Observer at April 19, 2007 2:21 PM
Keep an eye on this. I bet that the police try and stick the Cherokee driver with failing to yield to a police vehicle.
Posted by: Passerby at April 19, 2007 2:22 PM
Wow. Spooky to read that sometimes the motorcades don't stop at red lights. They usually don't have their sirens on while they're driving in covoys like that, so how are we supposed to know they won't stop??
This is an example of politicians' and police's blatent lack of regard for normal citizens!!
Posted by: Avocado at April 19, 2007 2:32 PM
They are supposed to stop at red lights (supposedly--I'm just parroting what Betty said at the time).
Passerby, I was thinking that it's pretty unfair to get nailed for not yielding if you never heard the sirens and didn't know you were supposed to yield. I'm sure if the guy saw ten cop cars barreling down 16th Street, he never would've crossed V.
From a legal perspective, if indeed there is a statute that forbids motorcades and cops from crossing red lights except in an emergency, then the guy can almost definitely recover from the District, since it would be negligence per se. I doubt that the District would assert any sort of immunity in a case like this.
Posted by: David Barzelay at April 19, 2007 2:55 PM
*IF* those cops were all there because there's a significant chance of an assassination attempt, rather than mainly for show, then there's a good reason they don't want to stop at lights. A moving target is much harder to hit, especially with anything heavy enough to stand a good chance of killing a target in an armored limousine.
But you don't do it by just blowing through red lights! Send out some cars in advance. They enter the intersections on the green and block them from cross traffic before they turn red.
Posted by: markm at April 20, 2007 7:59 AM
Once a postman ran into my mother's parked car. She had to pay for the damage.
Posted by: lsmsrbls at May 22, 2007 3:51 PM
