[VIDEO] Head-on Crash on my Tri-Cities 25 MPH Neighborhood Street

There was a head-on crash in front of my house last week. It made me wonder how this happens in a 25 mph neighborhood, and then I remembered exactly why.

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Head-on Crash Happened in My Tri-Cities Neighborhood

How does a head-on collision even happen in a neighborhood with a 25 mph speed limit right in the middle of the afternoon? I post the video from my door camera below so you can so how for yourself. From my perspective, I am surprised that it didn't happen long before now with what I see in my neighborhood every day. My house sits on a T intersection in a housing development in Kennewick called Creekstone. For years the traffic from the surrounding streets has leaked into my neighborhood streets with daily drivers that obviously forget the speed drops from 35 mph to 25 mph. Most of those people shoot by my house at over 40 mph daily and seem to ignore simple road rules like stop signs, speed limits, driving in the correct lane, or slowing for pedestrians.

I Heard a Crash in Front of My House

I was in my garage last week when I hear a loud smack from out front of my house. At first, I thought something had been knocked off the shelf because I was working on a project. I didn't see anything so I went about my business until a few minutes after I heard an ambulance siren get close and turn off near my front yard. Quickly I ran outside to check on my neighbors and see what was going on.

A Crowd of Police, Ambulance, & Crashed Cars in Front of My House

Out front of my house were 4 different police cars, 2 ambulances, a crowd of people, and a head-on collision between two cars on the corner. Luckily, right away I could tell that mostly only "pride" was injured in this crash with both cars empty and their drivers walking around talking to police. I was glad that everyone was ok but angry at the same time wondering how this could happen on a 25 mph neighborhood street in the middle of the day. That is when I realized that my door camera was pointing directly at the crash and I grabbed my phone to check and see how it happened for myself.

I See This Almost Every Day in My Tri-Cities Neighborhood

When looking at the video of the crash (I posted it below), you can clearly see a black sedan starting to turn right in front of my house when suddenly a tan SUV slams into the front of their car from the left. I illustrate in the picture above how the SUV was driving in the path of the yellow arrow but should have followed the path of the green arrow. The SUV was not only probably speeding but was cutting the corner like it was a racetrack. They didn't even see the car sitting in their own lane until the SUV came around the corner and slammed into them. Yes, the black sedan didn't come to a complete stop at the stop sign, however, even if they were stopped the SUV would have plowed into them anyway. As I watch the video, all I can think about is how many times my family or I have driven or walked across that same intersection. The SUV could have easily slammed into one of us or one of my neighbors walking across and killed us instantly.

Police Advice at the Scene Shocked Me

I was talking to the police about the accident at the scene about what I saw and how we see driving like this all the time. One Kennewick officer commented that they used to live in Creekstone and said "That's why I moved out of here" and that the unsafe traffic was one of the reasons why he moved. Since the Kennewick Policeman had experience and already knew about the problem in my neighborhood, I asked if they could do some patrols to help. He said that all they could do was "maybe" increase speed patrols outside the neighborhood, but nothing inside it.

Does that mean people can just do what they want while driving in any Tri-Cities neighborhood? What do my neighbors and I have to do to keep our families safe in front of my own house? How do we keep people like that from flying by our homes at almost double the speed limit? Maybe the fact that police can't or won't patrol neighborhoods is the reason why we are having this problem in the first place, just saying. My whole purpose for posting this story is to make people that speed through neighborhoods think twice about how they would feel if one of their own family members was killed in front of their house.

You can watch the accident video from my door camera below.