'Oh, It Happened Again'

When Mike Steele heard the sounds of an accident outside his front door on Thursday night, he was not as surprised as might have been expected.

“It sounded like every other accident that happens out front,” he says.

Half asleep in bed just after 11:30, Steele says he and his wife were less than shocked to hear yet another car crash outside their home, which sits at the deceptively dangerous offset intersection of three streets, East Falmouth Highway, John Parker Road, and Shorewood Drive.

“We heard the crash,” Steele says, “and we said, 'Oh, it happened again.'”

It wasn't until he stepped outside to survey the damage that Steele discovered this accident had struck even closer to home than most. The four steps leading up to his front porch lay in a pile of splintered boards, beneath the SUV whose driver, police say, caused the accident by running a stop sign and slamming into a sedan.

The sedan had ended up on Steele's property too, flattening a row of bushes at the edge of his lawn. The SUV had halted only after encountering his porch, in the absence of which it would have crashed directly into his home.

Even after seeing the damage, Steele was largely unfazed.

“Nothing surprises me here anymore,” he says. “What can you do?”

Steele says the intersection is the scene of an almost constant series of accidents, some minor, some serious, many occurring around last call, but many, also, taking place in broad daylight.

While drunk driving is no new problem, on the Cape or anywhere else, distracted driving has only added to the danger, as the proliferation of cell phones and other mobile devices has led to such questionable habits as texting while behind the wheel. And, as Steele points out, simple carelessness is perhaps the most common cause of accidents.

“People have to pay more attention,” he says.

According to police, alcohol was a factor in Thursday night's crash. They arrested the driver of the SUV, Marcie Barber, for operating under the influence, and several related offenses. The occupants of the sedan were transported to Falmouth Hospital with what police described as non-life-threatening injuries.

For his part, Steele is remarkably laid-back about the accident, and the damage to his house. A truck driver for many years, besides residing at the hectic corner, he has seen his share of unsafe driving, and learned to focus on what's important.

“As far as I know, no one was hurt,” he says. “That's the main thing.”