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It's nothing new. Walkers complain about bikers who go too fast. Bikers are irked by walkers who hog the narrow pathway and meander along with headphones on, oblivious to what's going on around them. A recent article in the Inquirer highlighted this ongoing source of frustration.
Well, here's another point of contention that doesn't get mentioned all that often - and it's that of park-goers and the thousands of autombiles that use this windy stretch of Kelly Drive. Even though both parties co-exist peacefully, for the most part, the potential for disaster when you're out there is always closer than most of us like to think.
I was reminded about this earlier this summer when I had a close call with an out-of-control vehicle on Kelly Drive. A friend and I were finishing up a run and heading in the direction of the Art Museum, feeling good about the distance we'd covered. It was getting dark. We were on the portion of the path closest to the river when suddenly we heard the harsh screeching of brakes and the sound of a car's horn blowing frantically. The driver of a dark-colored sports utility vehicle had lost control of the vehicle, which crossed several lanes of traffic and was careening in our direction. Excuse the cliche, but it really was like a scene from a horror movie.
I screamed and we began hoofing it as fast as we could as the car jumped the curb and skidded toward us. My friend turned and headed to the right in the direction of the Schuylkill, while I stayed on the path sprinting back toward Center City.
It seemed like forever but the incident took just a few seconds. The car landed on its top for a moment before righting itself again. Inside, was a very dazed 60-something man who was clearly intoxicated and actually admitted to me had been drinking.
I yelled, "You could have killed someone!" He looked surprised. "I killed someone?" he mumbled back.
I was reminded of this nightmarish scene earlier this month when yet another vehicle - this time a 2000 Buick LeSabre - drove off Kelly Drive, soared about 30 feet and landed in the river. This happened during the morning rush hour as horrified rowers, runners and other onlookers watched.
Miraculously, none of the people who use the path that time of day was hit. With the help of a witness, the driver, Michael Vincent Lamb Jr., 19, of Logan, was able to free himself from the car and get to safety. Lamb wasn't charged in the incident, although he was arrested on a a previous warrant.
This near-disaster - so similar to the one I witnessed just two months earlier - was probably just a fluke. After all, thousands of cars navigate Kelly Drive every day without posing a threat to all the bikers, runners, walkers and others who flock there. But as Barry A. Bessler, chief of staff of the Fairmount Park Commission, pointed out yesterday, although incidents like these are rare, they do happen.
"If you go along there and look carefully at those trees, how many have the bark shredded off of them?" he said. "It's also not a high curb . . . Raising the curb profile along the entire thing would obviously be a significant undertaking in terms of capital expenditures."
But that would raise a whole host of other issues in terms of snow removal, drainage and such. The onus, Bessler said, really is on park users to beware. If you ask me, that means forgoing headphones and never forgetting that you may be zipping along on your Rollerblades, but you're right next to a major thoroughfare.
"People have to realize that they are recreating within a few feet of one of the busiest arteries in this town," Bessler said. "It doesn't have enough opportunities for traffic to be calmed by traffic lights or anything else. People go too fast."
And anything can happen. *
Have you peeped a hot trend that hasn't been reported? E-mail heyjen@phillynews.com and let me know what you know. To discuss this column and to also see what else we're talking about, log onto my blog at http://go.philly.com/hfyje
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