Thursday, January 26, 2012

Woman Drives Through the Verdugo Wash At High Speeds**

This is perhaps the ultimate Glendale driving story.  An elderly woman in a Mercedes drove down the Verdugo Wash at high speeds, including several foot tall drops, before being hailed down by maintenance workers.  From the Glendale News-Press:
She reportedly drove into the wash at Glenoaks Boulevard and Kenilworth Road in Glendale, drove through the water and several stepped portions of the channel while reaching speeds of about 70 mph, officials said.
The woman finally stopped near San Fernando Road after being hailed down by maintenance workers, who she whizzed by at freeway speeds, police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.
"Right now it's unexplainable," he said.

To attempt to understand this, I checked out her route on Google Maps.  You can see where she might have been briefly confused by the ramp down, especially if it was open, perhaps for the maintenance workers in the wash.  But not noticing the water and accelerating to highway speeds is pretty remarkable.  If she hadn't stopped where she did, she would've plowed into a large wooded area just before the wash joins the LA River.

* The GNP just added a photo gallery of the scene.

** Good video of the scene from ABC7.

*** just added an image of her entire route, start to finish.



3 comments:

Qalice said...

This is where we live! Ever since I moved to Glendale, I've been complaining about "inexplicable" driving. People who don't know the city don't know what I mean. This is what I mean. You're right -- this is the ultimate -- but I've seen variations on this for years -- the obliviousness, the lack of common sense, the disregard for one's own safety and the safety of others. Thank you for posting it -- especially with the pix! You know I could go on for an hour -- most Glendalians could!

Anonymous said...

This does not suprise me! I commute by motorcycle to work in Glendale from Silver Lake. I have witnessed more driving atrocities in Glendale than anywhere else in the world I've ever been, including Europe and China.
Qualice was right on the money by mentioning "the obliviousness, the lack of common sense, the disregard for one's own safety and the safety of others."
I've witnessed it all, from the people with oblivious driving habits with total selfish disregard for signs and laws, to the young men accelerating from 0-60mph in 4 seconds, speeding down Brand and Central in shiny new German sports cars while children and families are close by, I'm always prepared to take evasive action on my motorcycle. In fact, I've had to take evasive action almost every day while driving in Glendale.

Anonymous said...

Check her cell phone records: Dollars to donuts she was either on the phone or texting when this happened.