Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Sun, Feb 20 2005
Lack Of Posts Due To Local Accident
The lack of postings on Friday was not due to negligence. Early that morning there was an accident on a very curved road near us that resulted in an all-day power outage while utility workers repaired extensive damage from the accident. The vehicle snapped a utility pole in two and knocked a fire hydrant from its base. When I heard the noise and saw a flash I looked out the office window and saw the geyser from the fire hydrant shooting into the air, and then I realized that the utility pole, and its attached lines, were literally bouncing up and down over the roof of a nearby house. A neighbor and I both went to check on the driver. I won't go into too many details except to say that one very frightened young man was walking around and knew he would be having to deal with the police. That was bad enough, but he knew he was also going to have to answer to his mother.
A local paper reported the story, but do let me note that at least three of the details in the story conflict with information I knew of that day. But do take a look at the photo from the story. If you notice the pole beyond the broken pole, imagine looking further to the right of the view. Just off that photo sits the curve that has been the site of many car crashes on that road. Speed is almost always a factor. My husband frequently travels Buena Vista Drive during his work commute and he insists on traveling near the speed limit. But he's often followed by other drivers who are impatient to go faster and who tailgate and pass him at high rates of speed. Many barely miss oncoming cars on the twisty two-lane road.
Buena Vista Drive is also a connector with Highway 1, and would be the main entrance for a future planned development that has been in the works by the city of Watsonville in their attempts to expand their borders and give their residents more housing choices. I've mentioned before that many residents in our area, who were never allowed to vote on the issue, have fought against the development, and we continue to do so. If the city actually thinks it can pack thousands more people into the Buena Vista area, it had better be figuring a very down=to-earth, very major reconstruction of Buena Vista Drive into its little fantasy. The addition of hundreds of cars a day on that tangle of curves is going to require straighter lanes, and more than the two existing lanes that currently carry what traffic we have in the area now.
It was quiet here last Friday, because residents near the accident couldn't run clothes washers, watch TV, or run vaccuum cleaners. I did see one huge benefit to the whole incident. Our entire block was marked off while PG&E workers restored power and while the accident was being investigated. No one was able to do the usual racing up and down on our own road that day. I really enjoyed that part of it all.
posted at: 05:12 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
The lack of postings on Friday was not due to negligence. Early that morning there was an accident on a very curved road near us that resulted in an all-day power outage while utility workers repaired extensive damage from the accident. The vehicle snapped a utility pole in two and knocked a fire hydrant from its base. When I heard the noise and saw a flash I looked out the office window and saw the geyser from the fire hydrant shooting into the air, and then I realized that the utility pole, and its attached lines, were literally bouncing up and down over the roof of a nearby house. A neighbor and I both went to check on the driver. I won't go into too many details except to say that one very frightened young man was walking around and knew he would be having to deal with the police. That was bad enough, but he knew he was also going to have to answer to his mother.
A local paper reported the story, but do let me note that at least three of the details in the story conflict with information I knew of that day. But do take a look at the photo from the story. If you notice the pole beyond the broken pole, imagine looking further to the right of the view. Just off that photo sits the curve that has been the site of many car crashes on that road. Speed is almost always a factor. My husband frequently travels Buena Vista Drive during his work commute and he insists on traveling near the speed limit. But he's often followed by other drivers who are impatient to go faster and who tailgate and pass him at high rates of speed. Many barely miss oncoming cars on the twisty two-lane road.
Buena Vista Drive is also a connector with Highway 1, and would be the main entrance for a future planned development that has been in the works by the city of Watsonville in their attempts to expand their borders and give their residents more housing choices. I've mentioned before that many residents in our area, who were never allowed to vote on the issue, have fought against the development, and we continue to do so. If the city actually thinks it can pack thousands more people into the Buena Vista area, it had better be figuring a very down=to-earth, very major reconstruction of Buena Vista Drive into its little fantasy. The addition of hundreds of cars a day on that tangle of curves is going to require straighter lanes, and more than the two existing lanes that currently carry what traffic we have in the area now.
It was quiet here last Friday, because residents near the accident couldn't run clothes washers, watch TV, or run vaccuum cleaners. I did see one huge benefit to the whole incident. Our entire block was marked off while PG&E workers restored power and while the accident was being investigated. No one was able to do the usual racing up and down on our own road that day. I really enjoyed that part of it all.
posted at: 05:12 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
