One day there was a revival of Max Sennett's Keystone Cops on the streets of Naples. It was inadvertent, but anyone who saw it would swear Fatty Arbuckle and his gang were at work. It happened like this.
A recipe for disaster was present. The Trail had recently been repaved and it was summer. And, it hadn't rained for weeks. This allowed the sun to boil oil from the asphalt up to the surface. Then, when it does rain, the water/oil mixture is as slick as the proverbial cat's back door. Traffic accidents quadruple. Although all streets become slicker, some locations are worse than others. I recall crossing the Gordon River Bridge from the east was particularly treacherous. Try to turn onto Goodlette Road and you probably were gonna end up doing a helicopter spin, with no control over your car. Another bad spot, evidently, was in front of the Holiday Inn, then at about 12th Street No and US 41.
We received a call, during a welcome thunderstorm, that there was a Signal-4 (traffic accident) there. Patrol officers then heard a call that now there were two Signal-4's, the responding ambulance having slid into the car who had rear-ended another. The first police car arrived and promptly slid into the ambulance. Same with the second police car. Finally, the Sergeant went to see what in hell was going on and he slid into the second police car, making a daisy chain of the original two wrecked cars, one ambulance, and three police cars.
The Florida Highway Patrol, who did the accident investigation, could've used the same report for all: Hit the brakes and nothing happened. Ironically and thankfully, no one was injured. The ambulance had been called by a passerby and wasn't really even needed. Except, maybe, to make the daisy-chain longer.
Yep, no one was hurt, but three cops suffered several days of wise-az remarks from their associates. And there where some painfully bruised egos.
A recipe for disaster was present. The Trail had recently been repaved and it was summer. And, it hadn't rained for weeks. This allowed the sun to boil oil from the asphalt up to the surface. Then, when it does rain, the water/oil mixture is as slick as the proverbial cat's back door. Traffic accidents quadruple. Although all streets become slicker, some locations are worse than others. I recall crossing the Gordon River Bridge from the east was particularly treacherous. Try to turn onto Goodlette Road and you probably were gonna end up doing a helicopter spin, with no control over your car. Another bad spot, evidently, was in front of the Holiday Inn, then at about 12th Street No and US 41.
We received a call, during a welcome thunderstorm, that there was a Signal-4 (traffic accident) there. Patrol officers then heard a call that now there were two Signal-4's, the responding ambulance having slid into the car who had rear-ended another. The first police car arrived and promptly slid into the ambulance. Same with the second police car. Finally, the Sergeant went to see what in hell was going on and he slid into the second police car, making a daisy chain of the original two wrecked cars, one ambulance, and three police cars.
The Florida Highway Patrol, who did the accident investigation, could've used the same report for all: Hit the brakes and nothing happened. Ironically and thankfully, no one was injured. The ambulance had been called by a passerby and wasn't really even needed. Except, maybe, to make the daisy-chain longer.
Yep, no one was hurt, but three cops suffered several days of wise-az remarks from their associates. And there where some painfully bruised egos.
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