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When driving an automobile in New Orleans, the last thing you want to do is get in a wreck with one of our streetcars. You're going to lose. There's no ifs, ands or buts about that, you're going to lose. This is a shot of 910 at Carrollton Station, being repaired after being involved in an accident. The front bumper has been removed to be rebuilt.
The most common auto-versus-streetcar accident that happens is when a driver doesn't look behind them when turning into the neutral ground. It's not something we do in other parts of town, because you don't expect something to come at you from the middle of the neutral ground on, say, Elysian Fields or Napoleon Avenues. Thing is, on Canal Street and St. Charles Ave., that's exactly what might happen. NORTA put out reminder signs weeks ahead of the return of the St. Charles line, to remind uptown drivers that their streetcars are back and to look out for them.
I've never thought about the legal morass that a streetcar accident must be until just now. I've actually been on a NOPSI bus that was involved in a minor traffic accident, and even that was a paperwork nightmare for the bus driver. In the case of streetcar-versus-auto accidents, the odds are more likely that the auto driver is going to be at fault and will be cited. I don't know if lthe average auto insurance policy can even begin to cover the damage one of these wrecks can cause to a streetcar. And we're not even talking about the damage to the auto yet. When there's enough damage to a streetcar that it's got to go back to the shop, you should see the other guy! We don't have a good photo of a modern accident (if anyone's got one, please share it with us), but one of my favorite photos from my book, which ran as a Feature Photo here in 2004, is "Never Argue With A Streetcar," from 1914.
Happy New Year to everyone!
