Two In One Day

I live at a very busy intersection, and there are numerous accidents that I have witnessed from my very own windows viewing the streets below.

Today, there were two of them. One at the corner of 6th St. and Detroit Ave., where one party was pinned in their car, and the other at the corner of 6th St. and La Brea Ave., where one car slammed into the water hydrent and knocked it about 40 feet ahead, unleashing tons of water onto La Brea Ave. and 6th St.

Seeing little children in one of the cars involved was disheartening, but the fact that the accident (the one on La Brea and 6th) did not involve major injuries gave me some comfort.

I hate hearing that screech of the brakes, followed by the inevitable smashing sound. I hear the screech a lot without the smash, but when I do hear the smash, it's not welcome.

The sounds of sirens, police, ambulance and fire trucks, are all around, now. The fire station is only two blocks away, so the fortunate thing in my area is rapid response.

Last Thanksgiving, my grandson burned his hand on the stove when unattened at a relative's event. Faced with driving him to the hospital, vs. driving two blocks to the fire station, we opted for the fire station, knowing they were equipped to handle burn trauma. They even opted to take the grandson to Cedars Sinai rather than our insured hospital, Queen of Angels, due to expediency, and thank goodness, the insurance paid for it.

I hate witnessing these accidents so routinely.

UPDATE: Lot's of metal hammering as the city crews are here trying to close off the water. A police car is visible at the gas station, but there are an innordinate number of police officers around. Must be that time of the evening ... donut time. (grins)