The closest thing Houston has to a Bermuda Triangle — also known as various patches of curing roadway concrete known to appear in and around the intersection of Kirby Dr. and the Southwest Fwy. — claimed its third (known) victim over the weekend. It wasn’t a Lexus this time, or a Jaguar, but a bright red Mustang that found itself solidly rooted in the recently poured stew on the westbound feeder road between Greenbriar and Kirby Dr. early Saturday morning.
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The person who posted what appears to be second-hand information about the incident on Reddit indicated that the driver of the car appeared to be attempting to drive through the construction zone to get onto the westbound US-59 onramp before becoming trapped in the thickening mixture, and that no one was hurt in the incident.
Construction on stretches of feeder road along the Southwest Fwy. between Shepherd Dr. and Newcastle has been continuing for a little more than a year.
- Mustang VS Concrete [Houston Reddit]
- Previously on Swamplot: This Brand-New Red Jaguar Convertible Drove into Wet Concrete on the Southwest Fwy. Feeder at Buffalo Speedway Last Friday 59 Feeder Road Construction Without End; TxDOT Plans To Upgrade Upper Kirby Southwest Fwy. Feeder; Stuck in Kirby Traffic Again, Not Going Anywhere
Photos: imgur user jamie9169
It truly amazes me just how stupid people are. They are part of the reason why construction will never be finished in that area!!
So as much as I can laugh at the misfortune at what I assume was negligence on the drivers part, I have to wonder what the project manager is doing to change their traffic controls to make sure this doesn’t occur again (or easily occur). I guess if I was PM on that job, I’d be altering my protocols after the first car took a swim in my mix…
You can’t put up enough controls to stop what appears to be the entitled rich locals (judging by the vehicles) who think traffic laws don’t apply to them. The only think they could do is take up more road to park heavy equipment across the lanes, and even then, that may not work if the section of road is too long to stick an excavator arm across.
I
assume that, in addition to tickets for driving behind construction barricades and towing/repairs, they’re also going to be charged for the re-work on the concrete, and not pass that cost on to the taxpayers.
I agree with purdueenginerd. Often cones and barricades are put out without a lot of thought, assuming that everyone is driving 20mph. Not that the driver didn’t contribute (perhaps 100%) to this event, but most of us have found ourselves having to take evasive action due to poor/inadequate warning.
Before descending into class bigotry on the basis of vehicle makes, let us consider that ‘early Saturday morning’ is often a euphemism for ‘alcohol was involved’.
I totally agree with Chris C on every point.
Judging by the photos, there seems to be something missing- a traffic barrel or two, maybe?
Given the time this happened, can we assume that alcohol may have been a bigger contributing factor than feelings of entitlement?
As much fun as it is to blame the drivers, the construction crews along here have been doing a pretty poor job. Random lane closures, cones everywhere, no directing traffic, etc. I would think the amount of times this has happened shows there probably is a problem at the project mgmt level… not just with confused drivers.
Class bigotry? It’s an early model mustang. Common now… :)
Little penis, no patience, narcissist, over exaggerated ego and a simple dumb-ass that got what he deserved.
Let’s nor rush to judgement. Maybe the area doesn’t have the requisite barricades, etc. It’s really no surprise the type of cars, I mean look at where this is. And honestly, let’s leave the penis size arguments to the professionals…..
I guess the requisite off-duty, construction-site police/sheriff officer was sitting in his air-conditioned pickup with his flashers on? That’s got to be the easiest gig in town.
Even if alcohol were involved, there’s still nothing that the crews could do about that. I agree that the contractors have a tendency to be rather poor at signage sometime, including complete major ramp closures with no warning to let you get off beforehand. However, I can’t say that I’ve ever seen an instance where the lack of signage was so bad that you can’t stop in time and end up driving through the work area. Or did someone not put out cones and barricades at all?
As to class bigotry, while perhaps this is an older model Mustang (I can’t tell one from the other), Lexus and Jag are not typically associated with the working class :)
It’s like a Venus Fly Trap for drunk drivers. They should set up wet concrete pits near major intersections every Friday and Saturday night.
I nominate Super Dave for comment of the day.
Have you ever seen a person driving a mustang drive like they had a working brain in their head? Doesn’t surprise me.
The driver might have been rich. They might been entitled. They might have been drunk. They might not respect traffic laws at all or such sentiment may be situationally limited. They might have a small penis. They might have no patience. They might be narcissistic. They might be egotistical. They might be a dumb-ass. (I will add to this list of possibilities, they might have been distracted, they might have been very tired, or they might have been subject to the influence of prescription medication; and there are in fact many other possibilities, so many that it is nigh impossible to enumerate all of them.)
The construction manager might have abided by recent history and changed protocols; they might have judged their protocols to be adequate. Barricades might not have been erected at all, or properly, or in a manner that would be appropriate for traffic in that location.
What we know for sure is that any combination of these possibilities might have contributed to the accident. Although being drunk certainly increases the odds of having an accident, even drunk drivers are usually responsive to barricades; and yet, I’ve also known a fair number of people that even on their best of days are capable of jumping curbs or driving into buildings.
The fact is, we don’ know very much about what happened. We do not know what the driver did. We do not know what the driver deserves. Even if we were capable of rendering judgment over-the-wires with such limited information, it does not stand to reason that the driver will get what they deserve in the legal system.
This is one of those instances when the commentary on a news item is more tragic than the new item. It exposes the ease with which people spin a tale, assign guilt, and express faith in the powers that be to mete out a poorly-conceived notion of justice. It is an unfortunate tendency.
I wonder if it was like the B movies, where someone on the edge reached to the sinking driver with a big branch….
Duck ass driver !!!!
Beware the contractors are going to be laying the concrete traps again. With no warning they started breaking up the brand new concrete yesterday for the feeders between Buffalo and Kirby on both sides of 59. At least one they were doing the construction they gave you ample amount of warning in order to plan accordingly.