WHYY
By
De’Wayne Drummond, president of the Mantua Civic Association, at 34th and Wallace streets in Philadelphia. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)
Late one November night, the harsh sound of scraping metal interrupted Carmen Davis Cliett from her nighttime prayer. She didn’t have to look outside her bedroom window to know what happened.
“I just knew,” said 78-year-old Cliett. “I said, ‘Oh no, my car, my car!’”
The Mantua resident’s car was totaled. Driving south on 34th Street, another motorist first smacked into a different car up the block near Haverford Avenue. They backed out of the first crash and kept going, Cliett said, hitting her car a half-block later. The crash tore a pole from the concrete sidewalk and upended her flower bed.