"You Know, The Usual Places."

It's difficult for me to put in words how strongly I feel about how broken and dangerous Hudson is (oh, how I've tried!), but the three-car crash at 8:00 this morning at 6th & Columbia was another reminder of how truly fucked up things are at City Hall.   

Yes, there was yet another crash at that dangerous, blind intersection along the truck route that has no stop lines or crosswalks and has produced far too many crashes, usually quite violent ones as today's was.  Somehow, no one was killed or seriously hurt this morning.  This has to stop; something is wrong at that busy and narrow intersection.  Something that our bumbling, dysfunctional City Hall refuses to acknowledge. 

Does Shane Bower, our so-called Police Commissioner,
care that there was yet another "accident" at 6th & Columbia
as a result of a driver not seeing the red light?

Imagine if this had occurred on a Saturday morning with 
the farmers market in full swing! 

A year or two ago at a council meeting, I tried to make my case (for the second or third time) to Rob Perry, HPD and (in absentia) Police Commissioner Shane No Show Bower that there was something very wrong and dangerous with the intersection of 6th & Columbia, and that at the very least it needed stop lines.  Rob Perry told me that "we typically install stop bars in the commercial district first."  He didn't add that he would like stop lines at the intersection or that he would look into it, he basically told me to "Go suck an egg, jerk."  Then HPD Captain David Miller told the council and me that there "weren't enough accidents at the intersection" to justify doing anything since there was no problem there.  (It's true, he said this!)  Miller then sent me an email a few days later after I pressed him on the issue, trying to show me that the percentage of "accidents" that had occurred at 6th & Columbia for the previous year was miniscule, as if there was some sort of metric by which the city handled safety at certain intersections as opposed to others.  He didn't do his math correctly, failing to move the decimal point two places.  He claimed the intersection had .02% of reported accidents for the year, when in fact the result was 2.0%.  He acknowledged his error after I pointed it out to him, but it didn't change a thing.  Nothing was done to improve the intersection, and the issue was dropped, as they normally are.   Move on to the next issue, ignore that one too. 

But Captain Miller is a police officer, he is not our traffic safety city official.  He shouldn't be concerning himself with traffic safety - it's not his job to, nor is it any cop's job to!  They are all supposed to be dealing with LAW ENFORCEMENT, and that's all.  Not legislators or crosswalk and stop line advocates.  And Captain Miller shouldn't be talking about traffic safety at meetings or anywhere else, because it gives everyone the impression that he is the person to get our streets to be as safe as possible.  He shouldn't be answering questions about traffic safety (let along taking any questions), he shouldn't be making decisions about traffic safety, and he shouldn't be emailing about the issue (particularly if math is involved!).  Yet he does, regularly.  The person who should be talking and doing something about traffic safety is a guy who doesn't have an office anywhere in the city, doesn't live near Hudson, and seems to be more concerned with his motorcycle gang than with Hudson's traffic safety issues.  The folks at HPD and the Mayor's Office are just fine with this convoluted, confusing, unhelpful and dysfunctional arrangement.  The person to keep us safe on our streets is MIA!  Sounds like everything is in order!

Do you see how fucked up things are here in our little city with a huge fucking truck route running through it, where traffic is increasing by the year? 

If the driver of the black car told the cops that she 
didn't see the traffic light at all, what would HPD do about it?
Nothing?  Or try to figure out what percentage of the city's 
crashes occurred last year at 6th & Columbia?

I wouldn't be surprised if those two cars were each driving at 25 or 30 mph when they met in the middle of the intersection.  It sure looks like they could have been, doesn't it?  I heard the impact from a block away, as clear as a bell.  No sound of horns, barely a screech of brakes, just the sudden explosion of metal and plastic, like a two-ton bomb. I immediately knew what it was: another crash thanks to someone running a red light at one of the city's most dangerous intersections along the truck route.  The guy pictured at the side of his totaled grey car in the middle of the intersection had this to say when I arrived, as he looked a bit dazed and pointed to the traffic light above:  "I thought I had a green light."  He did.

The black car that wound up on the sidewalk after slamming into the front of the grey car, then hitting a parked car (the grey Prius), hopping the curb and hitting the house on the corner did not have a green light.  It had the red (while heading north on 6th, apparently).  Look at how damaged that parked car was and how far it was jolted from the curb!  Three totaled vehicles, one fucked up intersection the city doesn't care about.  Had it been a bicycle (with a Hudson cop on it, perhaps) or two, a moped, a motorcycle or an electric scooter with the right of way and a green light, someone would have died instantly.  Maybe two cyclists out for a ride, dead on impact.

I also recall a council meeting a few years ago during the Fire Department report when a representative mentioned the list of calls they had responded to the previous month, including a certain number of "vehicle accidents."  Council member Vicky Daskaloudi raised her hand and asked:  "Can you tell me where the accidents were?"  The fireman's response pretty much encapsulated the lack of concern at City Hall to make our streets as safe as possible:  "Oh, you know, the usual places.  4th & Columbia, and the triangle by the hospital."  He didn't mention 6th & Columbia, but he might as well have.

We should all be pissed at City Hall.  They are not doing anything to keep us safe on our streets (and sidewalks!).  NOTHING!

This morning, a bystander had an interesting observation about the traffic lights along the truck route that I had never considered or heard mention of:  The lights are much higher than they typically are elsewhere because of the tractor trailers.  You know what?  He's right!  Of course, Rob Perry is probably well aware of this, and maybe David Miller and Shane Bower are too.  "Sorry, there's nothing we can do about it."  

Within 5 minutes of this morning's horrific crash, it seemed like every HPD officer and detective on duty was at the scene.  What another great use of our resources and money!  Boy, do they know how to respond to emergencies!  Preventing them?  Well, not so much.  Unsurprisingly, I did not see HPD Commissioner Shane Bower at the scene.  He was probably at home, busy planning another one of his DOOMSTRIKER Law Enforcment Motorcycle Club rides for his pal and former HPD officer Chris Filli.  I doubt anyone at City Hall even bothered to call Bower to come have a look at the wreckage as a result of yet another "accident" at 6th & Columbia because someone once again ran a fucking red light that could have easily killed someone or a few people.  Maybe a mother, child and dog out for a walk, waiting to cross 6th Street at Columbia.  You know, at one of "the usual places" Bower is so concerned about.