#SEstreetlife photos- The car that killed the tree

Up close look at the car and the tree, as a tow truck driver tried to figure out how to get to the car, without having to move the tree.  #SEstreetlife, #steveemigphotos

Last winter, December 2021, I was sleeping in this weird end of a parking lot in the Universal City area.  For all of you not from L.A., that's right over the hill from Hollywood, next to the 101 freeway.  I was by this little retaining wall, and only a few cars would come in each morning, although people would sometimes park at night to sleep or smoke dope.  So I was out of sight of people driving by on the main road, Ventura Boulvard.  Tweekers and crackheads walked by all night long, but that happens pretty much everywhere these days.  For the most part, they left me alone.  

It was December, so it was chilly, probably around 40 degrees (F) out, and I had my sleeping bag plus a blanket wrapped tight around me.  That kept the wind out, mostly.  When it was chilly, I didn't want to get out of my little "blanket burrito" for anything, unless I had to take a leak.  I was fast asleep when I woke up to this incredibly loud crashing sound, like about ten 2X4's being cracked at once.  I poked my head out of the blankets, and didn't see anything in the dark.  

There were no big trees around me, like when I camped in the woods in North Carolina.  I'd heard big branches crack then.  So I couldn't figure out what it was.  The freeway was close by, so there was always some background noise, as well.  I just tucked myself back into my blankets, and fell back asleep.  I didn't hear anything else unusual.

In the foreground you can see the trunk of the tree, broken off at ground level, and the top of the tree in front of the car.  To the left, you can see two cars parked against the wall.  I was sleeping right behind where that white car is sitting.  Yeah... a bit close for comfort.  But it's L.A., shit happens.

There were no screams, no sirens, no sounds of people nearby.  So I crashed out for the rest of the night, and I woke up in the early light of the next day.  I got up, leaned against the wall behind me, and got my bearings.  As I sat there, a tow truck rolled into the parking lot, turned around, and backed up to a tree.  Half awake, before my first Diet Coke, I suddenly thought, "Wait, that tree is not supposed to be in the parking lot."  All I saw was this big green  part of the tree, I couldn't even see the car.

Side view, close up.  

The tree that got sheared off was maybe 11 to 12 inches in diameter, and about 20 feet high.  The car must have been doing 70 or 80 miles an hour.  It veered off course, bounced over a traffic island, broke off a street sign, bounced up a curb, and then sheared off a good size tree at the base.  If the tree hadn't been there, it would have gone about 50 more feet, and smashed into the side of an SUV parked there.  By the time the SUV driver picked up his vehicle, there was almost no sign anything had happened.  He had no idea how close his car came to being demolished.  

To snap this shot, I was standing on the traffic island the car bounced over.  You can see the double pole street sign it clipped off, the 2nd and 3rd curbs it bounced up, and the bushes it went over, before getting to the tree it smashed into and broke off.  

I don't know the details, but I have a crazy feeling the driver might have been drunk.  Smell that, that's sarcasm.  Whomever the drunk fuck was that crashed, they managed to do it without anyone calling the police.  Without a doubt some police rolled by, but the car was in a place where people could drive by and not really notice what happened.  Apparently the driver stumbled off, made it home somehow, and just called a tow truck to go pick the car up the next morning.  They didn't get a DUI out of this, as far as I can tell, and didn't get seriously injured.  I'm going to keep telling you in this blog, a lot of crazy shit happens on the streets.  This was one of those, "Holy shit! How did that happen?" occurrences.