Luckily, the driver was unharmed. He may want to get a Tetanus shot, though.
As we all know, the Gowanus Canal is an EPA Superfund site.
It is, of course, not the first time this happens. Back in 2009, another driver plowed his car into the waterway from the Park Slope side of Degraw Street.
And it happened in 1921, with a much different outcome.
The incident described in the New York Times article below was virtually identical to this mornings car crash. Both cars drove through barriers at Degraw Street on the Carroll Gardens side of the Gowanus. The crash victims in 1921, however, weren't so lucky.
Apparently the driver was speeding and ran over someone's foot on Court Street...sounds like he was out of it to say the least!
ReplyDeleteApparently he clipped a woman/ ran over her foot on Court Street and was barreling across Degraw Street. Good thing it's not a school day!
ReplyDeleteJennifer, I just read that as well. He apparently was driving up to 70 miles an hour down Degraw Street to get away.
ReplyDeleteServes him right.
ReplyDeleteSo many people just don't know that the canal is there, even people who grew up in Brooklyn and think they know everything.
ReplyDeleteBut it is hard to understand that you couldn't see far enough ahead realize there was no road, and only water before you.
Katia How about a post on how dangerous the lighting sequences on Court are? Why not restore it to two-way to stop the dangerous speeding?
ReplyDeleteWas Court Street a two-way street at one point? Do you know when.
ReplyDeletethere needs to be a stop sign at douglass and court
ReplyDeleteUnsure when, but the one way streets really took off in the 1950s for two reasons: everyone started buying cars, worsening traffic, and the government wanted quick evacuation routes for cities in case of nuclear attack. If Court Street changed, it may also have been as a result of Robert Moses/the BQE going in, offering an alternate commuter route to bring people out of downtown BK quickly.
ReplyDeleteA little help from Wikipedia shows Court may have been one way going north in the 1940s: "After this elevated structure was removed in 1944,[15] the Myrtle Avenue Line was combined with the Court Street Line, which had also used this structure, to form the Myrtle Avenue and Court Street Line [trolley]. This new route began at Court Street and Hamilton Avenue in Gowanus, and ran north on Court Street to Borough Hall and east on Myrtle Avenue to Ridgewood. Trolleys were replaced by buses in the late 1940s, and the route was split into the B54 on Myrtle Avenue and the B66 on Court Street.[16] (The B66 became part of the now-discontinued B75 route.)"
I'd dig more, but work doesn't wait for internet indulgences.
Very cool. I'll try to read more about it as soon as I have some time.
ReplyDelete@7:40 A stop sign at Douglass and Court? There is one on Douglass to Court that people run all the time. Maybe you mean a stop light?
ReplyDelete@jimmy - i guess i meant on court and douglass...it can be impossible to cross court there sometimes...a light would work as well.
ReplyDeleteDon't think a hit and runner driver cares about traffic rules.
ReplyDeleteThe latest is that he was driving without a valid license. See dnainfo.com.
ReplyDeleteThe neighborhood has become a race track again. Every night at around 11:15 a small black car is chased by a small white one. They blow stop signs & stop lights and race around for about 20 minutes every night.
ReplyDeleteAlso, from 4:45 to 6:00 p/m Mon-Fri Court Street is a speedway consisting of Court Workers trying to get to 3rd Ave faster than the speed of light.
Meanwhile, the local patrol cars have officers who text while they drive.
everyone is dying to get near the Canal
ReplyDelete