An elderly man driving a Ford Flex crashed into one of West Hollywood’s OutZones today, leveling a temporary outdoor wall and destroying landscaping in a converted curbside space meant for pedestrians and diners.
The collision occurred at 8278 1/2 Santa Monica Blvd. at about 4 p.m. Monday. The vehicle didn’t come to a stop until it reached the Pura Vita restaurant, which was closed the time. The crash comes exactly one week after City Council decided to make the temporary OutZone program a permanent fixture of WeHo streets.
The driver, who did not appear to be injured, was reported to be a diabetic whose blood sugar was very high. Paramedics who arrived at the scene said the man thought he was in Culver City and that the year was 2020.
Anthony Vulin’s office stands right in front of the scene of the accident.
Vulin, who sits on WeHo’s Business License Commission, says the city recently shortened one of the yellow barricades surrounding the OutZone for unknown reasons, leaving the seating area exposed to oncoming traffic. He also said that the barricade was not filled with water or sand.
While Vulin supports the OutZone program, he is concerned about improper installation of the barricades.
“They shouldn’t leave a gap where a car could fit in. I’ve seen many with this issue,” he said. “And they need to make sure they are filled with water and sand, as they should be.”
“I think OutZones are an important part of our city,” Vulin said. “We just need to make sure this doesn’t happen again by having each one looked at for any adjustments that need to be made.”
Photos courtesy of Athony Vulin
This wouldln’t have happened had Keith Kaplan been runnin’ things ’round here.
How long before an intoxicated driver crashes into an outzone?
Intoxicated drivers routinely crash into just about anything! 🤣
Why is that funny?
Probably thought is was a drive through. Personally, I love eating food sautéed in soot and car fumes.
BAN vax passports, END restrictions on businesses, RECLAIM our public spaces. #FREEWEHO.
By NOT exercising restrictions on business is what enables them to usurp public space for their private interests. “Vax passports” are a loosely defined idea and NOT an implemented policy, mainly used as an antivaxx or COVID-19 denier scare tactic against nonpharmaceutical disease containment methods.
Cy you don’t understand basic syntax.
Many times it’s the autocorrect on my mobile internet devise!
Ban Far Left Lunatics that started this Nazi lurch off the cliff.
Just for your historical edification, “Nazis” were on the far right of European politics in the 1920s and ’30s, just as they are on the far right in the US now. The term you want is more properly “socialist” or “communist lurch”. If you can’t get this basic information correct, you can’t be taken seriously.
Sorry special snowflake, when you are ready to put on your big boy pants and get your vaccine like the billions of us around the world who have, you can be a part of society again. You are free to move to Florida if that’s too much to ask.
Why don’t you leave?
Why would they leave a place that is actually implementing mask mandates and vaccine requirements?
Seems like you and the anti-vaxx MAGA bunch would be much happier in Florida.
Get new material.
Get vaccinated
Resign John.
Make us
More like why don’t you just get vaccinated💉❗
mY sHiNgLeS vAx WoNt WoRk UnLeSs YoU gEt YoUr sHiNgLeS vAx
Vaccines affect us the same way climate change affects you.
Another bad idea from city hall reactionaries. It’s inevitable that outzones will get people hurt or worse.
“Reactionaries”? That word does not mean what you think it means. West Hollywood is one of the least reactionary cities in the United States.
Don’t put elderly drivers in a moving vehicle and assume nothing will go wrong.
Ageism cloaked in anonymity is particularly vile and offensive. What is it about age and wisdom that has you so triggered? I think you owe an apology to the many very able-bodied elderly amongst us who function quite nicely in our society, even behind the wheel of a vehicle. Ageism finds a comfortable home in the otherwise woke performative crowd. If one ism is bad, all isms are bad.
I was honestly just mocking the poster below me. Take a second and breathe. I know you want to come for me any chance you get, but this was a swing and a miss.
Also, thanks for not ending your comment with a comma this time! Cheers!
This defense belies previous equally ageist comments you have made in the past, including another in this very thread.
You can lead the charge to put elderly nursing home residents in moving vehicles, Alan.
Your feigned outrage is so boring. Get a new schtick.
Deny, deflect, divert. It’s quaint. Rarely on point or presented in a logical flow. You’ll have another retort, because that’s what we do! 🙂
*Yawn* you’re still going?
oh, the arrogance of anonymity that has nothing substantive to add to the discussion.
Did you guys used to date?
Thanks for adding a bit of levity, Steve! It does appear so, doesn’t it? As I do not know the identity of GeG, I can neither confirm nor deny that we ever dated! 🙂 Overall, the quality of commentary in these pages has declined significantly in the last year. As you might recall from many comments over the years, I blame the toxicity afforded by anonymity.
Yet. you never take issue with any of the other anonymous commenters…
I think you meant a comma where you placed that period. Your assertion is demonstrably untrue. Divert, deflect, deny.
Do all boomers get insufferably pedantic when they get older?
And my statement is a fact. You routinely come to the defense of other anonymous commenters because they are aligned with your beliefs. Integrity? Never heard of her.
Do all younger generations suffer a persecution complex? Remember when you wouldn’t let go of my own misplaced comma? A reading of my commentary over the years will reveal the demonstrably untrue assertion you made. You seem incapable of anything but diversion, denial and deflection. It’s like Fox News. Your level of toxic anonymity is made all the worse through your laughable attempts to think you know what’s in someone’s head, and dismiss them as MAGA or right-wing simply because some part of their values don’t align your own provincial and parochial agenda–whatever that agenda is. Your commentary often engages… Read more »
“Remember when you wouldn’t let go of my own misplaced comma?”
I was mocking you…boomers really don’t understand internet sarcasm at all, eh?
Is there someone holding a gun to your head and making you read/reply to all of my comments? You can just keep on scrolling if you don’t like my opinions!
Cheers!
Alan you can’t rationalize with irrational people.
Could have just as easily been a wet-behind-the-ear 20something texting. “who” was behind the wheel and their age has nothing to do with it. Sitting in the street on a busy 4 lane road is not the wisest thing. We’re lucky it hasn’t happend more often.
I guess you should take issue with the headline then.
Don’t put customers in the middle of a busy street and assume nothing will go wrong.
There’s a pandemic happening, until it’s over we need outzones.
The customers are NOT “in the middle of a busy street” they are in the “OutZones” near the sidewalk behind barricades, this time an SUV went around the barricades. The “OutZones” need to be made safer by prohibiting private vehicles on Santa Monica blvd and ONLY allow Public Transit (possible exception for electric scooters) like the 3rd Street Promenade😀 in the city of Santa Monica.
That could work.
If you prohibit private vehicles on Santa Monica Blvd you’ve pretty much wiped out your customer base for the shops and restaurants. And shut down West Hollywood in the process.
3d Street Promenade doesn’t intrude into transit routes. WeHo does not exist to serve Outzones.
You haven’t thought this through, Cy.
I’m told steak tartare is best served with sides of carbon monoxide and soot.
How people can enjoy professionally prepared food in an Outzone is beyond me.
People aren’t dining in outzones for high quality food.
This seems illegal on many levels. A lawsuit will figure this out. There are legal alternatives for stuff like this, expand the sidewalks and narrow the street. Moreover, the big question is city liability as this was a rag tag idea thrown together without longterm review.
While I am not superstitious, perhaps this is a sign. Fortunately no diners were hurt but had this accident happened at another time this could have been very tragic. Clearly the City is liable for this design flaw and it calls into question the safety of the Out Zones as currently configured. That does not mean the program needs to end but it certainly needs a more in depth analysis than the rather cavalier discussion the City Council conducted at its’ last meeting. I hope a Council member pulls the item for reconsideration and for a proper analysis from Transportation… Read more »
If the city is going to give public land to the restaurant owners for free, the owners of those restaurants should at least be required to clean the sidewalks between the restaurant and the outzone on a regular basis.
Yeah, those restaurants have had it too easy these past few years!
sarcasm I get it. I think the small business owners that are not restaurants/bars would argue they have had it pretty bad as well these past few years. So imagine that they now have to deal with parking spaces taken away their customers could use and now can’t because of these out zones for restaurants.
Yes – when can we get our sidewalks back? Let the bars and restaurants expand into the street parking if necessary, but don’t impede the sidewalks! (Stache, Rocco’s, etc.)
Glad the man was not injured.
The car looks like it is a fifty-foot boat.
Cautions must be taken to prevent any vehicular injuries/damage, but deciding outdoor dining should be banned is beyond ridiculous.
Outzones are not the same as outdoor dining. Nice try Josh.
Well, if you want to call it “eating in the road”
Keep the outzones. The restaurants need them.