Car flips at 27th and Marshall

At about 2:45 am, a car hit the fire hydrant in front of wpa and flipped over. Police and fire responded. Hydrant was broken with water spewing onto street. I don’t know about the car occupants.

My guess – too many beers and they thought WPA might have a late night drive through window.

I know a lot of the neighborhood kids loved that little library John. Now thanks to some drunk driver, it’s all gone.

clay st resident… it doesn’t have to be all gone if people can pull together and make a new one happen. This is where community support comes in – if people really do care about it.

You know, seriously, we need to look into having one if the circles put there as one is a couple blocks down on Marshall. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard cars speeding through the Clay and Marshall intersection here on N 27th even going down 27th itself. Remember the car chase last year where the driver jumped and the car kept going for 2 blocks bouncing off many parked cars along the way here on 27th?

And this is not the first accident at that intersection this year and not the first where cars have been flipped there either. People speed way too fast down E. Marshall (25-mph residential) and that includes the buses. Now this intersection is active with businesses people need to sow it down and if they can’t, possibly a circle will.

I think a stop sign would make a real difference. We watch people FLY through the 29th and E. Marshall traffic circle. And its very rare if a car stops to let anyone cross the street. Plus its a school zone. I wish the circles worked but they barely slow down traffic on this busy street.
We would be happy to help rebuild the little library. We use it all the time.

jt… not sure how people fly through these circles? I wouldn’t without feeling like I am going to roll the car.

But FLY is the word when you see people going 35-45 through a 25mph area and I hear people going down our street bottoming out at the Clay and 27th intersection ten hit the gas.

Also a problem with a new stop sign where one never has been is that people go through them. Over the years people have a habit of never reading or caring about signs. Take for example the “no left turn” that is on the pole by the cleaners across from McDonalds at the bottom going east. People still make that left urn into the parking lot off of Broad ignoring the sign, often going in the “out” lane holding traffic up. They are supposed to turn down 18th and come in that side entrance.

Another issue is the blind corners because there is a law that says you are not supposed to park within 25-feet of a corner but people do it all the time and by the time you creep out into an intersection to see round these cars, you are already blindly half way out into the intersection risking a accident.

The issue here is probably not one that any traffic device would have solved. If you guys want to talk about speeding in general that’s fine but anyone who was this hammered would have blown through anything you want to put out there.

We need a stop sign at 24th and E. Marshall too. After several accidents and witnessing a lot of near misses due to cars parked on the corners, it’s time. Everyone barrels through there–especially if you catch a greenlight at 25th St. GRTC buses are some of the worst offenders too.

John Murden and WPA, do you want to put up another Little Free Library? I will be glad to contribute, too. Please post and let us know as we seem to be getting off on intersections needing stop signs (not that that is a bad thing, as I happen to agree with the need for four way stops at both 27th and 24th and Marshall, and the problems with GRTC speeds.) Matter of fact, I see a need for Lt. Minton to assign someone to enforce the stop signs, too.

If we can pull together a bit of funding as a neighborhood, we can buy either a kit or assembled library to get it back up quickly: http://littlefreelibrary.org/product-category/library/

@Eric Those traffic circles they put on Marshall are useless. They’re not a real circle so the intersection is a 4-way yield which is just awful. Trust me, I live between two.

Has anyone seen or been in an accident at one of the smaller traffic circles? I haven’t and I live between two of them. Prior to the circles I saw a police cruiser get demolished in a t-bone accident on the spot of the 31st and Leigh Street circle and I’ve seen multiple other collisions at other 4 way stops in Church Hill. The circles may not look that daunting, but they are hard to ignore. Even if you do plan to fly through them – people are generally paying more attention in the traffic circle than at 4 way stops.

But I have to agree with other commenters that a drunk or high driver is going to go through whatever is in front of them (police car, telephone pole, fire hydrant, mini-library). The only thing that would really help is much narrower streets that would make it much harder for a drunk driver (or any other driver) to gain speed. I can’t imagine there are to many cars flipping or blasting through stop signs on the narrow streets like 28th between Broad and Franklin. You just can’t go that fast.

Since this particular corner has become a successful commercial corner, perhaps four brick pedestrian crosswalks are in order (or exposing what may be left of the granite underneath) in addition to whatever else could be done. That would certainly go a long way towards making it a “place” and the different paving materials forces slower traffic.

Cyclist people: this street is very wide. Ask for a Floyd Avenue type plan?

#27. Exposing the cobblestone underneath as a crosswalk/rumble strip – very interesting idea.

As far as City Hall and GRTC goes, all one can do is try and see if they side with the residents. It seems there is an ongoing theme here now with intersections all along E. Marshall Street with speeders, blind intersections, stop sign blowers, and accidents due to all three. The least they can do is say no and the most is put up a circle or 4-ways along the route.

Yes, if a circle was implemented it has to be wide enough so people don’t simply swerve around it but have to slow down to negotiate the radius… and the radius of the circle should align with the curbs or it won’t be effective. The intersection at the Roosevelt is unique but something similar would work.

Remember, Marshall use to be the main thoroughfare from Downtown to Church Hill between 1911-1970 when the Viaduct was there giving residents and visitors a straight shot in without having to go down Broad Street. That it use to be paved with cobblestones in early years (some still exist near the curbs) and were completely covered with flat grey interlocking pavers up until the trolley tracks were torn up in 1959 along Marshall. Afterwards it has been blacktopped. In other words either trolleys or buses have always gone down this street but need to be investigated about their speeding as well as the general traffic which has been allowed so many years to fly through intersections prior to the resurgence of corner businesses. What would it take – someone to be mowed down and killed before something is done?

Ziti, for school buses thay could re-route I guess?

With the time the happened alcohol must be a factor in the accident. Also it was near this block during Halloween night a drug sale was seen taken place in the middle of the street with children all around.

I understand how you can fall asleep at the wheel on a long stretch of monotonous highway, but on a city street two blocks from a red light. RPD, what?

Would gladly contribute to the Little Free Library monetarily. Contributed many great literary works over the past few months, as well.

Also a huge fan of individuals driving cars that obey traffic signage and are respectful to fellow human beings walking or riding bicycles. We are all here together.

Please no more circles. The ones they have by Chimbo DO NOT slow down traffic in the least. The four intersections they have been set in are far more dangerous now, because instead of 4-ways stops, we have a circle in which the cars never even yeild. It is dangerous for a car and more so for pedestrians.

I was at wpa on Sunday morning and noticed that the little library was down and books were inside wpa, wondered what happened. This is an opportunity to re create it even better than before! Love the idea of brick crosswalks, too.