Car Smashes Into Brooklyn Heights Promenade Fence

By on April 20, 2011 11:52 pm in News, Traffic

Reader “Y” on OTW tipped us off to this: earlier this evening, a car came down Clark Street at what must have been a pretty good clip, crossed Columbia Heights and kept going, smashing through the barricades that have blocked off the Clark Street entrance to the Promenade for lo! so many months, crossed the Promenade and crashed into the fence. Fortunately, no one was in its errant path. As “Y” puts it: “Fence 1 – Car 0.” As you can see from the photo, though, the fence did sustain some damage. By the time your correspondent arrived, the car had been removed, and absorbent material was scattered on the Promenade to soak up oil that leaked. (Photo and more text after the jump.) Just added: photo of the car…

BHB reader photo: Cassidy Merriam

As “Y” points out, the forcible removal of the barricades means that the Clark Street entrance to the Promenade has been unofficially reopened. No doubt this will be reversed quickly. Update: It has been, as of this (Thursday) morning, at least at the Columbia Heights end, where the barrier is back in place.

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  • TonyGooch

    What are the plans for fixing the access (finally)?

  • Matthew Parker

    Holy Cow! Could have been a tragedy not just for the car driver/passengers and any Promenade pedestrians but if the fence had given way, motorists driving below on the BQE.

    Could this have been a “Thelma and Louise” style suicide attempt?

    Hard to imagine a driver could have thought the downward ramp to the Promenade was an extension of Clark Street, but I guess possible, if the driver was inebriated/stoned.

  • GHB

    I saw the aftermath and wondered if the driver had some kind of attack, or if it was some drunk behind the wheel. Glad no one was hurt!

  • mlo

    The car must have been moving at an excessive speed not to be able to stop after going through one fance and not being able to stop for quite a distance before hitting the second fence & putting a dent like that into the iron fencing. Why would anyone be driving so fast down Clark Street to begin with. Thank goodness no innocent people were hurt.
    Instead of replacing perfectly good street signs because they want to change the font why doesn’t the city post speed limit signs and enforce the city street speed limit of 30 mph by ticketing people who are speeding through the neighborhoods careening down residential streets-
    Tickets for really breaking the law and imposing a danger of threat on others vs. writing bogus traffic tickets and wasteful spending or maybe we could eliminate streets altogether and build high income highrises everywhere

  • George Earl

    License, bye-bye! It sure should be. Don’t assume that some physical disorder caused this happening. It most likely looked like fun to him or her. Wonder where cops were. More and more downright illegal activities are happening in the Heights. Right?

  • bornhere

    I was (more or less) born on that stretch of Clark between Willow and Columbia Heights, and I don’t recall there ever being a similar incident — the occasional fender-bender with a Columbia Heights car vs Clark Street car, yeah — but this is beyond spooky. What a gift that it wasn’t worse than it was.

  • http://www.subwaysubculture.blogspot.com Marta Apple

    That is impressive! Through all the barricades? The two metal fences blocking the entrance, the wooden horses blocking the “Indominable Sink Hole of Clark Street,” the sink hole itself, right under the scaffolding…..

    Maybe it was my Clark St. landlord, running from the City Marshals who broke into my building yesterday in attempts to investigate the multiple violations and unpaid con-ed bills in the building.

  • nabeguy

    I can’t say for sure, but this may be a simple case of faulty brakes. I remember once, as a kid, a guy coming off the exit from the bridge had the same thing happen…he managed to barrel though Fulton Street traffic, narrowly missed a Good Humor cart vendor and his customer at the corner of Middagh, and continued up Middagh, pinning a young woman to the wall of the Peaks building before finally rolling to a stop. Based on the amount of damage to the Promenade fence, it’s probably a very good thing that those barricades were at the entrance to slow this car down or it really could have been much much worse.

  • heightsguy

    a man was also found drunk on Adams St. slumped over his steering wheel. There were only three tires on the car. It said he had driven from Manhattan. This happened last year. It is up there with the Clark St. events.

    Next: prices slashed at Gristede’s, moon turns into a green matzoh ball.

  • JoeyJoralemon

    Finally some excitement in the Heights!

  • nabeguy

    heightsguy, I didn’t know Georrge Micahel was in town.

  • michael

    That guy was way too old to drive, he seems in his late 70’s. He could hit and kill someone since that is a very popular spot for people to hangout and see the Manhatten view.

  • TS McGee

    @JoeyJoralemon.. The most excitement (that I’ve experienced) on the BHB is that nabeguy is leaving BH.

  • nabeguy

    Michael, since no details about the driver have been released, and you seem to have been a witness, fill us in on what you saw.