Allen Parkway is no stranger to accidents. The winding roadway with narrow lanes, extending from downtown Houston to Shepherd Drive, and its adjacent streets, are a magnet for collisions and vehicles that veer out of control.
The most recent accident occurred Thursday night when a motorcyclist lost control, jumped a curb and crashed on a sidewalk on the Waugh Drive bridge near Allen Parkway. The motorcyclist and its passenger along with two pedestrians who were standing on the bridge were seriously injured and transported to an unnamed hospital in stable condition.
A spokesman for the Houston Police Department told CultureMap that the crash happened around 9:30 p.m. Thursday but offered few details since no fatalities occurred. The accident is under investigation. The motorcycle driver was cited for failure to maintain a single lane.
Last month, a driver of a Hummer was killed on Allen Parkway near Waugh Drive when he was apparently driving too fast while he came up on a curve and lost control. The car hit a tree and flipped over several times before landing upside down.
In 2009, prominent attorney John O'Quinn was killed when he lost control of his SUV on Allen Parkway just west of Montrose Boulevard, crossed a median and struck a tree on the south side of the road. A passenger in the car was also killed. Speed and wet roads were believed to have played a role in the accident.
When it opened in 1926, the 2.3-mile road, then known as Buffalo Drive, was the main route between downtown Houston and the new River Oaks residential community, according to Historic Houston Streets: The Stories Behind Names by Marks Hinton. The roadway remains the main link between exclusive River Oaks and downtown.
See the KHOU report on the latest accident:
Four were injured after a motorcyclist jumped the curb near Allen Parkway.
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Photo by Leonid Furmansky