Melissa Bailey Photo
A woman driving across Orange Street T‑boned a passing car, sending a woman to the hospital and snarling East Rock traffic in rush hour Wednesday.
The car crash took place around 6:15 p.m. at the intersection of Cottage and Orange.
A woman driving a Subaru Outback east on Cottage Street. She said she stopped at the stop sign, pulled out to cross Orange, and hit a car that was traveling north on Orange.
“I’m totally shaken up and I’m bummed,” said the driver. She was not injured.
The crash took place outside the busy plaza that’s home to P & M Deli, Orange Street Liquor and Lulu’s European Coffee House. One of the guys from the liquor shop popped out and asked if she wanted a drink. She declined.
The Subaru driver blamed a Jetta that was illegally parked on a no-standing zone at the intersection.
“You can’t see oncoming traffic because that car is there,” she argued.
Meanwhile, firefighters from Engine 8 on Whitney Avenue were helping the other driver get out of her car. She had to be taken out from the passenger side.
The woman appeared “shaken up” and did not know if she needed medical help, so firefighters took her to the hospital on a stretcher just in case, according to Officer Jeremie Elliott, who took the accident report.
Elliott (pictured) said he had not decided who was at fault.
She got all the way across one half of the street and hit a car on the other side? Sounds like she should have been paying better attention and it is probably her fault.
That noted, it IS incredibly difficult to see oncoming traffic on many of the streets crossing Orange due to parked cars blocking the sightlines.