Hey, there! Log in / Register
Car on Storrow Drive hits tree, bursts into flames
By adamg on Sun, 08/21/2011 - 10:04am
Firefighters used the Jaws of Life to extract two men from a burning, crushed Infiniti on Storrow Drive eastbound at the exit to Kenmore Square around 4:20 a.m., the Boston Fire Department reports:
The vehicle burst into flames. The impact of the crash trapped the two occupants.
Both men suffered burns and multiple injuries, but were conscious when extracted, the department says, adding at one point, firefighters had four separate Jaws of Life running to get them out. Both were taken to local hospitals, where their condition has stabilized, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.
The DA's office reports the driver, 27, is from North Andover, as is the other occupant, his brother, 29. State Police, who were first on scene but who were unable to get the men out, are investigating the cause of the crash.
This is the second bad accident at that same basic location this month. On Aug. 9, a Needham man died when the SUV he was in on the westbound side crashed and he was ejected. The driver, also ejected, survived.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Worst nightmare scenario
Glad the men survived, but what a horrific ordeal that must have been.
Nice work by the emergency responders.
Did this happen on
Did this happen on Charlesgate or Storrow? The map says Charlesgate - where exactly did the other crash occur? Are they related to speed or unusual design of the road? Is anyone reviewing it?
Sorry for the inexact location on the map
Google Maps lets you input either specific coordinates or street addresses. I went with the latter, and obviously, there's no address for the specific location.
BFD says: "A sedan with two males was exiting Storrow Drive eastbound at Kenmore Square."
DA's office says: "State troopers responded to the area of Storrow Drive eastbound near the off-ramp to Kenmore Square to find a white Infinity engulfed in flames on the median strip, where it had collided with a tree."
State Police are investigating the crash.
Pray for them
I happened to be in Storrow drive at that time and saw the car in flames I pulled over and tried to help, but there was nothing we could do.Iit was a horrible scene the men trapped inside the car were screaming for their lives, I thought they weren't going to survive. Thank God they are alive!
Thank God indeed
I found out today that the men are brothers with whom I attended high school. Keep 'em in your prayers.
I'd rather thank...
The inventors of JAWS (the hydraulic pincers that tear a car apart in seconds), the inventors of air bags and crumple zones, the inventor of firewalling the engine, the fire crews who arrived on time with the knowledge and tools to pull them out quickly, the EMTs who stabilized them and got them to the hospital...
silly kaz
God made all those people!
Yes, silly me
I was under the impression that God only made 2 people once.
Actually one ...
then he genetically modified and cloned the other.
He cheated off a quadruped design, too. Deadline pressure I guess.
Ooooooh, you're one of *those*...
Only if you're talking about a "Christian" God. There is evidence in the interpretation of the Qur'an that Eve was made at the same time not "from" Adam. I only assumed that they were all talking about thanking the Islamic God.
interesting story on NPR yesterday about exploding cars
20 years from now cars will be electric and you wont have the classic car exploding scenes that holywood has made famous through the years. you also wont have cars bursting into flames on storrow drive.
I assume you're not confusing
I assume you're not confusing Hollywood stunts with reality. I'm 56 years old, and I only remember ever seeing a car on fire a couple of times. It happens, but it's so rare that I've rarely seen in happen in person. The truth is that liquid gasoline doesn't burn easily. The fumes are highly flammable, but you can pour gasoline on a lit cigarette and it will just put the cigarette out. Those Hollywood stunts are tricks, like magicians do.
i used to be a junenile delinquent
a couple of two liter soda bottles filled with gasoline and a lit roadflare stuffed under the dashboard can have spectacular results. if you call the cops to remove an abandonded car enough times with no response this will usually do the trick. i guess it would work with an electric car too but im too old to find out now.
statute of limitations is up on all my dirty deeds
Flaming Fords
I've seen quite a number of cars engulfed in flames -- motorcycles too. None of them however have been your standard Hollywood rearender-turns-into-inferno type of fire. Engine fires seem fairly common, but usually the cars are pulled over to the side of the road when something begins to overheat and then >poof< the front end of the vehicle starts to go up. My brother's car with a trunk full of painting supplies spontaneously went up in a spectacular fashion in the middle of the night. Flames going up taller than our house, peeling the pinstriping of the cars parked near by and frying the crabapple tree.
Anyhoo, hope the two guys trapped in that car are ok.
nope, you'll just have them
nope, you'll just have them getting electrocuted
A Really Bad Curve
I can't count the number of times that I've either nearly wiped out or nearly been wiped out on that off ramp. The road speed on Storrow tends to be high there, the offramp starts out straight and then ends in a very tight curve, and people constantly and instantly decide to change lanes (rather than hold and merge) where the other ramp joins in without looking. If you can zoom in from google street view, there is a vehicle doing just that - sharply cutting from the left to the right directly in the path of an oncoming vehicle!
Good to hear the brothers made it out. It will be interesting to hear what happened. Boston being Boston, I doubt that the condition and poor design of the roadway will ever be faulted.
Isnt the speed limit
Isnt the speed limit 35mph?
If you cant handle a soft curve at 35mph, I suggest giving up driving, forever. Especially because that curve is there every time. And has been, for 50+ years.
Take a look on google maps
The curve at the end of the ramp is not a "soft curve", nor is it a 35 mph curve. It is a 20-25mph max curve at the end of the ramp - in a small car, with a sober driver. I've driven it about a 1000 times. I doubt the usual backup from the light had much to do with this particular accident.
At least it isn't pretending to be 2 lanes like it used to be.
All the same, the blind merge with cars coming from the westbound ramp adds to the fun and games. Most massholes don't know or understand what that red triangle means, either, adding to the fun.
We don't know what happened with this car in this accident ... but we can clearly see the failed design with our own eyes (and my father, who was an expert in such things, was horrified by it years ago when I lived in Kenmore Square).
Storrow is obsolete and unsafe. While these accidents often involve high speeds, drinking, and lack of seat belts, it doesn't help that the roadway and its ramp systems are antiquated.
If people are going at reasonable speeds
they aren't going to have problems here. (btw, Back Street also merges into this intersection.) Usually enough cars are stopped at the red light that people are travelling slowly through here.
This
Even at 40-45mph, in rain, the curve is not bad and well within making it safely.
Now, 60-80MPH, which is what I'm guessing these guys were doing, forget about it.
Crashes on Storrow do happen from careless driving or pure randomness. But the bad ones have always been due to speeding or intoxication. My guess is this is one of those times again.
Bull
40-45 where you leave Storrow? Yes. 40-45 where the curve tightens up at the Kenmore end, just as you merge? No. Maybe 30-35 now that it is a single lane rather than two lanes, like it was when I lived there.
In the past, it simply wasn't news when people crashed there - it just used to happen all the time when I lived in the area. The bridge structure underneath bore the scars of fail - lost paint, impact cracks. Perhaps that is why the state actually modified the ramp to a single lane, and put in a yield sign - too many accidents to ignore.
I havent driven it 1,000
I havent driven it 1,000 time, but yes, dozens.
Never thought it was problematic (besides the backups)
Boston has nothing to do with
Boston has nothing to do with it, Storrow Drive is on the State.
Same attitude
Same state. Same problem.
It's not Swirly drive, its's Storrow
Slow down or take another route.
I too have driven Storrow 1000's of times.
Without ever coming close to wiping out or getting wiped out, at this exit, or any other.
Learn to drive and take responsibility for your own actions.
Enough with the nanny state nonsense.
If you can't drive the road take a different route.
Or the T.
Yeah but...
...I bet yer dad wasn't an expert on this stuff....and I'm sure her dad could beat up yer dad.
(Full disclosure: I fucking hate the dickheads coming onto that ramp from Westbound Storrow who apparently have never understood what YIELD means. And yes, I have driven on Storrow Drive tHOWsounds of times. And driven in a Cadillac a similar number of times.)
The make is spelled
The make is spelled "Infiniti".
Fixed
Thanks.
The saying goes like this:
YOU DRINK, YOU DRIVE, YOU LOSE!!!!!
That is true
But what does that have to do with the story?