passion...schmassion

day 10935: kaboom

Take a good look at the picture. The burgundy blobs are streetcars, the blue blog is a pickup truck, the white blob with the red line is a police car (with the lights flashing) and the other white blob is a cargo van.

Here are the facts. It was a bright and sunny morning, and I was rushing to get to work on time. The drive downtown was surprisingly fast, but only because all the lazy ass government workers and the bank employees get the day off. I’m only slightly bitter because I was supposed to have the day off as well, but damn monkeyco…

Sorry, I’ll stick to the facts.

The lights at intersection X and Y were out. All the cars were treating it like a four way stop. The streetcar going East was stopped, the one coming West wasn’t quite at the intersection yet, but had started to slow down. Me. I was jaywalking as usual – see me in the NE corner? I’d wave, but I’m rushing to get to work on time.

Four way stop. Blue pickup truck started to go. I started walking across. I was looking at the police car (with the lights flashing) and wondering why the guy sitting in the front of the car isn’t directing traffic. It’s not an overly heavy intersection, but there are a lot of crazies out there. And they all wear hospital gowns with the back flapping open…

Sorry, I’ll stick to the facts.

Blue pickup truck (actually it was black, but it wouldn’t have shown up as well in my picture) was going through the intersection. (At this point, I was halfway across the street.) When all of a sudden, KABOOM!! White cargo van didn’t realize that the lights at intersection X and Y were out, and decides to drive right through… and right into Blue/Black pickup truck.

[I’ll insert note here that everyone seemed to be ok because they were able to get out of the car and yell at each other.]

[I’ll also note here that real car accidents are never as KABOOOMISH as the movies make them out to be. It’s more of a CRUNCH really, than a KABOOM.]

It took a few moments, I think, for people on the street to get over the surprise. The police car (still with lights flashing) drove up to the *scene* of the accident (i.e. all 20 ft) and parked his car halfway in front of the streetcar and halfway in the lane of the westbound going traffic… i.e. in the middle of the other streetcar’s tracks. So, not only did he block the eastbound streetcar, he also blocked the westbound streetcar. On Queen Street - in the middle of rush hour. Way to go, Joe. Gold star for you.

So here’s what I’m wondering (and have been all day):

1) Why wasn’t the policeman directing traffic?
2) Why was he just sitting in the car?
3) Why did he have to block BOTH streetcar tracks?
4) If I had actually voted in the municipal elections today instead of blogging this, could we have had a more competent police force?

Sadly, the only one of my questions that I can answer is #4.