The Intersection of Doom Strikes Again!

As the post title indicates, there was yet another accident at the corner on which my house sits.  I spotted this mess while riding home in the passenger seat of a truly craptacular early 1990's Pontiac Bonneville with a dent in the side.  This is a car in which the suspension is a complete sponge, and only two of the windows would go down -and for a while, only one would go back up -the kind of car that's just such a heap, one can't help but feel some sense of freedom while driving it.  Run over a pot hole and bottom it out?  Who cares?  It's not like the value of the car can get much lower, right?  Back into a post and ding the bumper?  Big deal!  Maybe the impact will pop out some of the dents around the new one.  Gotta love a car like that.  Well, love is a strong word, let's say "tolerate" in this case.  All opinions of my brother's latest clunker aside, at least it's in better condition than the Red Mercury Grand Marquis and the dark colored Dodge Stratus that tangled at my intersection.

Well, it looks like the Grand Marquis took the most damage in this bout with the Stratus, but lets just see how these two stack up against each other.

Lets start with the Stratus.  I'd place it as a 2000 model.  That means it likely has a 2.4L inline four cylinder engine with about 150 HP or a 2.0L I4 with 132 HP driving the front wheels.  This contender weighs in at around 3,000 lbs.

In the other corner, we have our Mercury Grand Marquis, which I'd place as maybe a 2007 model.  This one will have a 4.6L V8 sending power to the rear wheels in the form of 224 HP and 275 lb-ft of torque.  It carries a curb weight oft 4,137 lbs.

One would have thought the Grand Marquis would cream that little stratus, what with its over 1,000 lb and 75-86 HP advantage.  But, it would appear the Stratus got in a sucker punch at the intersection.

I'm not sure who ran the light.  Undoubtedly, somebody did.  What I do know is that the Grand Marquis had at least three, if not five passengers.  There were two people sitting in the back seat of the Mercury, and the driver was standing around near the car, as were a couple of other people.

I watched some of the post accident action unfold from my yard once I got home, and the rear passenger side passenger in the Grand Marquis was making quite a fuss.  He was yelling and screaming at the cop, who at first was trying to respond in a volume I couldn't hear from my yard.  After it was clear that the passenger wasn't going to stop haranguing the officer, the cop raised his voice and yelled at the passenger "You're yelling at me, you don't need to do that.  I called for an ambulance already!"  Whatever injury that rear passenger was claiming to have, it's clear from how much yelling and carrying on he was doing that he didn't injure his lungs in any way.  I only saw one person standing near the Stratus, and she seemed okay, or at least was standing on her feet and not screaming at the police.      

What do you want to bet that somebody ends up placing a call to one of the many ambulance chaser lawyers that advertise on the billboards around Northside?  My money is on the occupants of the Grand Marquis based on the amount of drama that passenger was stirring up.  Well, best of luck to all involved, I say, and I hope nobody was actually injured.