Here in the Los Angeles metro area we sometimes get news stories that are almost impossible to envision in any other place - like stories about Mel Gibson’s personal church. Last Thursday, January 26, a story appeared in the
news about a 53 year old driver who apparently mistook a service entrance to the Verdugo Wash as a freeway on-ramp. The entrance gate had been left open because a maintenance crew was working in the wash. If you are not familiar with Los Angeles, you need to know that this “wash” is a 9 mile tributary of the Los Angeles River that was lined in concrete for flood control purposes back in the 1930’s.
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| Image from Tropico Station |
The driver apparently accelerated up to freeway speeds of 60 or 70 mph once she hit the floor of the flood control channel and did not stop until the car, a Mercedes Benz, careened down a series of steps designed to drop the flow to a lower level. After going down 9 steps, the car came to a stop just short of another drop in the channel. Fortunately, the driver was rescued from the flood control channel and did not suffer any major injuries. There is an excellent description of the event at
Tropico Station, a Glendale blog.
The story captured my attention. In spite of its “laid back” reputation, L.A. does have its share of automobile accidents. Every so often, we hear of a Ferrari that flames out somewhere along the PCH or an SUV found at the bottom of a ravine along one of the more precarious canyon roads. But this accident was different. This involved one of the many long stretches of concrete in L.A. that is not a road or a freeway. This is a creek bed!
There have been numerous proposals over the years to turn some of these concrete creek channels into car or bus lanes. Now we have a driver who has taken the matter into her own hands. Personally, I think we should convert these channels back into
real creek beds. Real creeks serve a lot of useful purposes for both people and wildlife. Moreover, it is very doubtful that a
natural creek will ever be mistaken for a freeway.
