Crashes illustrate Lynn intersection’s perils

LYNN – A serious two-car crash occurred at the intersection of Chatham and Marianna streets Tuesday afternoon as this reporter and an Item photographer interviewed a resident whose car was destroyed after another vehicle slammed into it in the same spot and fled Saturday morning – highlighting the need for a traffic light there.Currently, only a blinking light is located over the intersection.”The city should have a fundraiser to put an actual light here, not just a blinking light,” Roberta Thomas, 49, a resident of 258 Chatham St. said.Thomas’ 1995 Chevy Lumina was destroyed around 2 a.m. Saturday when it was parked on Marianna Street at the corner of Chatham.It appears from the damage that someone drove a car over the sidewalk at the street corner and slammed into the side of her vehicle at a high rate of speed.”He had to have been driving 35 to 40 mph,” said Thomas, who added that she hasn’t been able to move the vehicle since the crash.The part-time Healy school bus driver and mother of three adult children is disabled and lives on a fixed income. The vehicle’s front axle snapped and the accident caused major body damage, rendering the car not drivable.The suspect fled the scene in a vehicle, which a witness described as an early 90s Lincoln Town Car and has not been caught.A disappointed Thomas said she needs a new car, but it’s not something she can afford right now.”I work part-time and I report my income. This is all I have. This is my freedom,” she said. “I’m going to have to beg everyone I know to drive me around.”As Thomas was telling her story at about 5 p.m. Tuesday, a mid-90s Chevy sedan slammed into the side of a late-model Highlander in the middle of the intersection. No one was injured.A 30-something-year-old man ran out of a Marianna Street home and said he knew the woman driving the Highlander.A responding police officer later said the man claimed to be driving the SUV but, after some discussion, the 53-year-old Lynn woman was cited for unlicensed operation and a stop sign violation.The Highlander was stopped, but sticking into the middle of the intersection when the Chevy slammed into the side of it, sheering off its bumper.”It’s such an average thing right here. It’s almost routine,” Thomas said of the amount of accidents at the intersection. “It’s a straight shot from Western Ave. to Essex Street.””One night [after a previous accident] they were pulling somebody out and putting them on a backboard,” Thomas explained as neighborhood children rode around on bicycles. “Look at all the kids over here.”Thomas, who has limited physical mobility because she suffers from osteoarthritis and a collapsed spine, hopes the city will do something about the dangerous intersection. But her immediate problem is finding a way to get around.”How am I going to replace this car?” she asked.Before we left, she expressed disappointment at the blatant carelessness of the person who destroyed her vehicle.”I’ve lived in this city 90 percent of my life and I know people really care for each other. When did people stop caring about each other?” Thomas said. “Why did you take off? Why do you want to drive impaired?””Take responsibility,” she said.