![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Amateur Forensics
11 Jan 2015 14:38Last night as I was settling in for bed, there was a big crash out by the front of the apartments, which I thought was a less-big crash from behind and wrote off as someone throwing something in the recycling or the dumpster. But no. Turns out someone crashed into the metal railing between the sidewalk and the road.
In their car.
And drove away.
So today after we got back from church and brunch, I wandered over to look at the railing. See, the giant chunk of the fence missing was obvious, but I noticed as we were pulling out of the parking lot this morning that the end of the fence, by the parking lot entrance, had also clearly been taken out. So I was very curious: was the driver coming out from our parking lot? Turning in? Could we figure it out?
The answer: YES, we could!
I'm not going to go through the entire process and details but from the debris patterns and few visible skid marks, we determined that the driver was going the other way, on the other side of the road, and managed to cross over at least the two (apparently empty) lanes of opposing traffic, jump the curb, plow throw the clearly insufficient metal railing, take stock of the situation after losing a headlight and probably a rearview mirror, then drive down along the sidewalk about twenty feet before pulling back onto the road - avoiding the tree next to the sidewalk and the pile of plowed snow on the edge of the parking lot, but not noticing the end of the railing and taking it out in the process, damaging their other headlight.
And then they drove away.
In their car.
And drove away.
So today after we got back from church and brunch, I wandered over to look at the railing. See, the giant chunk of the fence missing was obvious, but I noticed as we were pulling out of the parking lot this morning that the end of the fence, by the parking lot entrance, had also clearly been taken out. So I was very curious: was the driver coming out from our parking lot? Turning in? Could we figure it out?
The answer: YES, we could!
I'm not going to go through the entire process and details but from the debris patterns and few visible skid marks, we determined that the driver was going the other way, on the other side of the road, and managed to cross over at least the two (apparently empty) lanes of opposing traffic, jump the curb, plow throw the clearly insufficient metal railing, take stock of the situation after losing a headlight and probably a rearview mirror, then drive down along the sidewalk about twenty feet before pulling back onto the road - avoiding the tree next to the sidewalk and the pile of plowed snow on the edge of the parking lot, but not noticing the end of the railing and taking it out in the process, damaging their other headlight.
And then they drove away.
