Patrick and I were dispatched to a major accident this morning at 3 AM in the 1500 block of Kirby. The dispatcher said that two vehicles had run into a tree. Now, we get drunks that will hit trees fairly regularly. But two vehicles hitting a tree, that just sounded strange. We arrived to find something strange, indeed. An approximately 100 year old, 75 foot tall oak tree had split and fell to the ground in two large pieces. The tree survived Hurricane Ike, but insects brought it down. Large black insects were swarming all over the bottom of the tree where it had been in the ground. As bad luck would have it, when the trunk came down on Kirby, a silver Volvo was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The tree hit the Volvo right where its windshield meets the roof. Luckily for the very good looking female driver, the canopy of the tree kept the trunk of the tree from falling all of the way to the ground. The female was not injured, but was crying hysterically. She was on the phone with her mother who we could hear yelling at her. The mother was saying "nothing good happens when you are out after midnight". I wonder if the mother knows that her daughter is a bartender?
The Volvo took on the tree like a champ. Maybe there is something to Volvos and crash ratings. Right after the tree hit the Volvo, a '99 Jeep Cherokee traveling on Kirby slammed into the tree, barely missing the Volvo. The drunk driver climbed out of the passenger door and walked away southbound on Kirby according to a witness. To the drunk guys credit, Kirby is very dark at night in that area and anyone could have run into that tree. Being drunk just assured him that he would not be able to react. The tree appears to have been sitting on the property line between two residences. One homeowner came outside and the other homeowner did not answer their front door. Of course, the homeowner that we spoke to claimed that the tree belonged to his neighbor. The homeowner who claimed that the tree was not his, asked us who was going to clean up his yard. Patrick said "you, I guess". I could not have said it better myself. Our dispatcher called public works who as of 4:30 AM still had not arrived on the scene to begin the cleanup. So, we parked our patrol vehicle blocking southbound Kirby and put on the strobe lights to prevent more accidents. I allowed Patrick to light a flare and place it in the road. He was excited, you would have thought he just found $100. Apparently he had never lit a flare before. Sometimes it is the little things in life.
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