The Car and the Pole

I think the reason I didn't explain about the car before is because I wasn't sure how it happened myself. 😧

We have our main lot, then two overflow lots. This happened in one of the overflow lots.

About three hours after church ended one of the custodians went over to lock the gates. They have 'arms' or poles, that swing and lock into position. He locked the gates and went back across the street to the church. That's when he heard someone calling him.

There had been a couple of cars parked behind some landscaping and the custodian hadn't seen them when he locked the gates. So he went back over. You remove the lock, pull out the large pin and push one arm over to one side, and the other arm to the other side.

The poles are extremely heavy and to secure them you have to lift them up slightly so they fit between the brace/bracket thing, then keep adjusting until the large pin fits inside.

In the first picture, you can see the upright posts behind the gate. That's where you secure the gates when they're open.

The custodian thought the people would quickly pull out so he pushed the arm all the way over, but didn't secure it.

As they were pulling out, the man stopped to chat. The custodian was on the driver's side, standing in front of that gate arm and couldn't see the other arm very slowly swinging back toward the center. The man's car was back far enough that the arm swung just in front of it as he began to move forward again. Both he and the custodian heard a 'pop' and that's when the arm went through the windshield. 

The two officers held the arm still while the driver s-l-o-w-l-y backed up. The pole came out clean and there was no more damage to the windshield. He was able to drive it home. I'm so thankful it wasn't more serious.