21- CRASH

There was a collision at the intersection of Route 212 and Playhouse Lane this morning, Saturday, December 19, 2009.

(No, I didn't cause it to attract attention. My neighbor was there and called me after she called the town's dispatch. I was nearby, and happened to drive by before I even got her message. She saw my car and waved me down and I took some photos with the camera on my phone.)

What happened: One large black vehicle was parked illegally along the north side of Route 212, where the bushes came down and the no parking signs went up. Another large vehicle backed into the first vehicle's back door panel, denting it. The offending vehicle broke its tail light and scratched its bumper. There may have been a dent too, I don't remember.

This means that the collision involved one illegally parked car, which was stationary, and one moving car, which backed straight across two lanes of traffic to a point where there should not have been a car, but there was.

....

The police officer at the scene took both parties' registrations and other paperwork and seemed to be checking them, if not reporting the accident on his computer system in his car.

I heard him saying the words "if it's less than one thousand dollars," which we know to be the definition of a non-reportable accident. Whether the accident is reported or "non-reported" and simply filed under that heading (which, face it, is in a way also reported,) it happened. It happened on a Saturday, which is a day that sees a lot of noontime traffic in that intersection.

Today we witnessed confusion, danger, a collision and damage at the intersection of Route 212 and Playhouse Lane. There is no debating WHETHER this may or may not happen. It DID happen. Too many cars, not enough vigilance, and a poorly configured intersection cannot tolerate another 400+ trips into that intersection.

.......

To the Woodstock Planning Board, the Woodstock Town Board, the Ulster County Planning Board, and the New York State Department of Transportation: please take this seriously before somebody innocent gets hurt.