Wrecks Out My Window

I have the honor of recording all of the accidents at the 5th worst intersection in Houston, as rated by the Houston Chronicle. This is the intersection of Beltway 8 and Westheimer in Houston Texas. My office is on the sixth floor facing West and has a simple webcam in the window. This camera has been in operation since August of 2013 and has captured over 20 accidents as of June 2014. A second camera on the North side of the building was added in May of 2014 and was a quick hit as June was a busy month with four accidents.

Link to the Wrecks Out My Window Playlist

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This was the very first wreck recorded on the webcam. If you look closely you can see me at my desk in the window reflection. It was so exciting to actually capture the first wreck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07s14d6NkoE

The latest wreck - 11/25/2014

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1G0YwGymSQ&feature=youtu.be

If you want to see the pictures I took of the accidents prior to the webcam you can check out my Facebook album. This is what the intersection looks like. This shot is facing East on Westheimer. The wrecks mostly happen when someone traveling East on Westheimer runs the light on the other side of the intersection. You can see that the light is in plain view.

 

probably texting

 

Lol that didn't take long. You installed the camera 2-3 weeks ago right?

 

I was wondering if I was going to jinx the intersection by installing the camera, but it looks like I didn't hinder the idiots at all.

The camera went live on July 23rd. Didn't take too long.

 

No Ducks given by anyone around that

Must be a popular spot for accidents.

 

You know that might prove useful to the people involved in the accident or the PD who handled it.

 

+1

I see all kinds of stupidity out there.
I've gotten to the point that I don't wait for the PD to request it... if I'm aware of something, I pull it from the short-term DVR and save it to our file server so it'll be ready to go when they call.

Unfortunately, my software doesn't export to a Windows native format, so I can't post anything here.

 

what are the odds that a cop just happened to be parked right there lol

 

Ouch! Probably texting.

 

I don't know if its just me not seeing many intersections like that, but I would stay FAR away from that intersection forever, that looks ridiculous

 

I had thought about that possibility. If the wreck is bad enough I'll go down and see who wants it more, the guy at fault or the victim.

$$$ talks

 

^Good thinkin... "I have proof that you caused that accident on video, but the Ben Franklin brothers might cause a mysterious hard drive crash or something"

 

haha. Pretty funny thread. Nice work. Who knows what you might catch on film! You can charge the media big $.

 

WOMW

I like it

 

I like how all the witnesses are like "aaand I'm out! *drives away*"

I'm just amazed that they didn't notice all the stopped cars around them.

 

Sub'd. Good stuff, OP.

There was a time-lapse done in there... Can't tell how long it took, but the cop wasn't just parked there.

 

Hes actually on the middle left of the video pulling someone over.

 

I believe the officer was talking to a couple of panhandlers when the guy ran the red light. The old sedan that almost forgot to stop was probably watching the cop and not the light. The cop pulls over after one cylce of traffic. The video transition covers up the movement of the cop over to the wreck.

 

This is definitely the culprit of texting - if they were intentionally trying to "make the light", I would think they would have been going a lot faster than that.

 

Here's another one. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv9q1Wh4ij0