Crime & Safety

Bumper Cars Bangin' in Lamorinda

We're curious. Tell us again how you can roll a car on a 35mph suburban road?

Robert Priebe, said it best one evening - at one of those community gatherings where the chief is invited to talk about local issues and public interest inevitably comes around to the driving habits of people in town.

"It seems that people here want to be able to drive as fast as they can, as far as they can - without hitting anything," he said.  "It's when they hit something that their attitude changes - and then they want to know why everyone else is going so fast."

The chief himself has been on the wrong end of a wrong-way driver, getting an up close and personal view of a Moraga teen an instant before she crossed the center divider and rammed his off-duty car head-on several months back.

Find out what's happening in Lamorindawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"It was pretty surreal," he remembers.  "I was hurt pretty bad and people were leaning into my car, telling me 'don't move, don't move.'  And I remember thinking about all the times I've said that to other people who have been involved in accidents and now they were saying it to me."

Alcohol and impaired driving are still the main cause of accidents in Lamorinda, followed by speed and distracted drivers, according to local law enforcement.  For some reason, people seem to be rolling their cars in Lamorinda at a pretty consistent rate, something you might think would be hard to do on roads limited to speeds of 25 or 35 mph.

Find out what's happening in Lamorindawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

But it's happening.  There were two instances yesterday alone, both in the span of about an hour, one in Orinda and one in Moraga. Both "turtled" in the lexicon of fire and police, with the cars on their backs.  In the Moraga case, passersby reported a wreck at Moraga Way and St. Andrews Drive, near the Moraga Country Club, and with a woman trapped inside the car.

Police say a car driving east on Moraga Way ran a stop light and struck a Honda CR-V entering the intersection from St. Andrews Drive, flipping it onto its roof and briefly trapping the driver.  She was treated for minor abrasions to the arm and later released.

"It happens," Priebe says sagely, too wise in the ways of law enforcement to call out the people he has sworn to protect and serve as irresponsible drivers.  "It would be nice if people just slowed down."


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.