Photos by Charles Toots

Resident Charles Toots emailed over some photos and a description of a car accident that took place on Saturday night at around 1:30 am. According to The Eastsider LA, the driver, who was not intoxicated, was taken to the hospital for her injuries. And even though there were no signs of another vehicle at the scene, the driver kept asking, “Who hit me?”

Charles describes the scene as they approached:

The area was caution taped off and people were milling about. The car was on its side against the fence. The driver had already been taken off. The police and firemen were just standing around too, talking or doing paperwork.

We started to talk to the people and walk about, trying to reconstruct what happened.

People said that a woman had been driving and that she had not been seriously injured (the airbags had obviously been deployed). No one had suggested that any other car was involved but then we spoke to no actual witnesses. We could see no skidmarks anywhere but then, we didn’t go and hang out in the middle of the street to thoroughly check.

The trash bin that was knocked over was on the other side of the fence that was hit and traveled across the sidewalk and was stopped by a parked car (which seems to have only sustained a broken taillight and maybe a scratch in damage). One gas tank nozzle laid on the ground and the last 3 or 4 inches had been broken off, still barely attached to the rest. One of the red posts surrounding the tanks had paint missing and if you look at the back of the car, you can see that red paint. There was also a trail of fluid along the lane in front of those tanks and it when I stuck my finger in it, it seemed to be a gas/oil mix.

At the corner by the air hose and phone, the little concrete island was seriously cracked and broken. I strongly suspect that the oil pan of the car hit that since it would be about the only thing strong enough to win a battle against that concrete. That ripped the pan open – as well as causing other damage – and this was what caused the streak of fluids along the ground.

Basically, the car did not negotiate the turn at Morton, avoided hitting the stop sign in the middle of the street, hit the concrete island on the corner and got somewhat airborne, went through the gas station between the bus bench and the tanks, shearing a nozzle and hitting the post, continued until it hit the fence (pushing the bin on the other side across the sidewalk) which, being at an angle to the cars path, then deflected it onto its side where it finally came to rest.

Like Charles, we are wondering if the lack of street lines painted on Echo Park Avenue and that intersection had anything to do with the car wreck.

Photos by Charles Toots