The Kind of Accident You Might Find in Front of Your Fifth Ward Townhome When Your Street Is Too Narrow and Your Driveway Is Too Long

Scene of Auto Accident at Baron St. and Bayou St., Fifth Ward, Houston

Townhomes Under Construction, 400 Bayou St., Fifth Ward, HoustonAs a cautionary demonstration of the hazards of the kind of wacky old-roadway-meets-new-driveway construction found in front of a set of under-construction townhomes at the corner of Bayou and Baron streets in the Fifth Ward, the accident pictured here doesn’t quite hold up to extended scrutiny. Sure, it might be tough for a vehicle to stay on the asphalt when a stretch of roadway suddenly disappears and new concrete driveways stretch across it (as illustrated in the second photo above). But here the damaged Escalade appears to have crashed into a stationary hazard on the opposite side of the street.

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And yes, the car might have run right over the driveways!! But isn’t it nice that the utility pole that stands in the middle of the street right-of-way (carrying a single, decommissioned electrical line, according to a source) protected those new stretches of concrete from any damage?

Scene of Auto Accident at Baron St. and Bayou St., Fifth Ward, Houston

Scene of Auto Accident at Baron St. and Bayou St., Fifth Ward, Houston

Townhomes Under Construction, 400 Bayou St., Fifth Ward, HoustonBut hey, wacky streets get wacky accidents. Photos of this one, sent in by a Swamplot reader who saw our story about the bizarre confluence of public roadway and private drive posted yesterday, show the result of a mid-afternoon Escalade escapade from a weekend earlier this month.

Photos: Swamplot inbox

Dude, Where’s My Road?

16 Comment

  • All I was thinking was that some Swamplot reader crashed their car into the driveway after reading this story

  • HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA…!!!

  • The driveway’s not too long. The street’s not too narrow. It’s the car that’s too big. Honestly, a Cadillac Escalade defeats the whole purpose of living in the Fifth Ward, doesn’t it? You live in that neighborhood for the short commute – to save transportation costs and time. Then you turn around and blow $70,000 on a gas guzzling premium SUV? Really?
    .
    Not to judge, but it just doesn’t make sense to me.

  • Might’ve been rubbernecking looking for those famous driveways when a pole suddenly jumped out in front of the vehicle. Or was texting.

  • Ruh roah, Lucy, you got some splannin’ to do!!!!

  • Probably texting ..

  • hahaha … HAHAHAHAH!!! It gets better every time I look up (maybe something the driver should try in the future).

  • Escalade in the Fifth Ward usually means one thing, someone’s buying or someone’s selling some street pharmaceuticals.

  • ZAW, that Escalade is at least 2 generations old and probably goes for <$15K these days.

  • Don’t be jelly of our health care system over here commonsense

  • ZAW: You may have that backwards my friend. I have a gas guzzler becuase I have such short comment and live where I can walk most places. I mean, why do I care how many MPG I get when I don’t drive much anyway? If I lived in the burbia and drove an hour to work each day THEN I’d be worried about my cars gas mileage.

  • @ ZAW: Just because there’s a Cadillac Escalade in the 5th Ward does not mean that it belongs to a 5th Ward resident; and even if it is a resident’s vehicle, that does not imply that the owner or lessee of the vehicle has chosen to live in the 5th Ward for any particular purpose. There is insufficient data for you to draw the conclusions that you have drawn.

  • I agree commonsense. I live close in and rode the bus for years so I could have a Ferrari and not worry about the mileage.

  • That may be Shannon.

  • As mentioned, it’s on the opposite side of the street– so I would think the driver swerved-over for whatever reason. Or was turning and had to cut-short (really, really short). Assuming a right-handed texter then the driver’s left hand would have cranked the steering wheel over the top, clockwise, and thus not onto the opposite side. Any data on lefy-texters in the 5th ward? No, probably not. Ergo: it was a Swamplot reader. QED. :)
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    I don’t usually drive in the 5th ward, but when I do, I drive Cadillac!

  • Looks like your typical Escalade driver. If it had been the faux-pickup version it would have been a perfect photo.