Adventures in Cambridge

So at approximately 1:25 am a drunk driver careened out of control and struck our front step, then into the front of the house, pushing along the front of the house he then took out the natural gas lines - causing a gas leak, then into the A/C unit obliterating it and sending into the driveway. He then continued on back onto the road. Police, fire, and utilities were dispatched. The road was closed for 2 hours. The drunk driver - driving on flat tires and smashed up car decided to return to the scene to apologize where he was promptly arrested.

I will post pictures later once I get home from work.

Lots of police. Road closed.



Two hubcabs left on the road and tire tracks coming towards the front door.


House impact. More of a glancing blow. 1D4 damage


Gas line was hit. 2D6 damage.


Air conditioner and gas line.


Air conditioner (or what is left of it). 4D10 damage.


Gas line and where the air conditioner used to be.

That is insane! Glad it wasn't worse, but must have been pretty stressful.

It was pretty crazy! Nobody got hurt and no structural damage so it went about as well as it could have. It was far more stressful for Linda than for myself. She was the one home at the time. There was a loud noise that sounded like a car accident but when she looked from the window she didn't see any accident. So she went outside to have a look and thats where she saw the smashed A/C unit in the driveway. On top of that she heard a loud hissing noise. So she went to have a look and that is when she saw the gas line. I at this time was blissfully eating my dinner at work. The hissing noise is now believed to have come from the A/C unit and not the gas line. The gas line did have a leak but not a major one (amazingly). Police showed up took a look at one of the hubcaps and radioed "we are looking for a Toyota". Fire department next and they looked at the gas lines. They kept going through the house with a gas detector gaget and checking to make sure no gas was coming in the house.

I think there was at least 6 cop cars and two fire trucks at the peak of activity.

Just occurred to me - I have made three insurance claims in my life, all three were related to drunk driving. In 2004 on New Year Eve my car was hit by a drunk driver, while it was parked for $2000 damage. In 2011 (or 2012) the car with hit full force by a drunk driver destroying the car. It also pushed that car into a bar patio. Total damage was approximately $15,000. And of course the most recent incident which will have a higher damage value than the others. It sucks but I am glad all of this is only measured in dollar signs and not lives.

Here are some graphs:






The 'colony' nations (Canada, USA, Australia, NZ) tend to cluster to together in global crime surveys and usually have higher rates than the 'Old Europe' nation. Not sure why Slovenia made the list but it would be classified as those oddball New Europe (aka Post-Soviet).   There is still a rough-edge to England's colonies.



Despite the high-rates of impaired driving in Canada it used to be much worse. Like every crime it was much higher in the 1980s (and likely even worse in the 1970s). A major factor in this drop is MADD, grieving mothers are a powerful force.

I sometimes wonder in the across the board crime drop during the 1990s is also effected by immigration levels. Population has risen must rapidly in major metropolitan where there is public transportation and many immigrant cultures have less enthusiastic views on alcohol compared to the majority of European colonists. 













And a few more interesting facts from STATSCAN's "Impaired driving in Canada, 2015" paper

• Almost two-thirds (64%) of impaired drivers were from the top two income brackets.
  
  
• One-third (34%) of impaired drivers were smokers, a proportion two times higher than drivers who had not driven after drinking (17%).
  
  
• People who reported playing a team sport in the three months before the survey—hockey, baseball, softball, volleyball, basketball or soccer—were almost twice as likely as inactive persons to report driving after drinking at least two drinks in the hour before driving (7.3% compared with 3.9%).
  
  
• St. John’s had the highest impaired driving rate in 2015, with 411 incidents per 100,000 population.
  

St. John's has a very serious problem with drinking and driving. The first image that popped in mind when Linda told me a car hit the house was from one that happened recently in St. John's.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/programs/hereandnow/damage-left-after-car-hits-home-in-st-john-s-1.3722939

Apparently a house in N.B. has been hit 9 times.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/tracy-vehicle-collisions-home-1.3713600

I can see bouncing off of curbs, hydrants and other cars, but to hit a house you got to be pretty wasted.

Apparently he was 2.5 times over the legal limit and couldn't even stand when they arrested him. So ya he was pretty wasted.