The following information was obtained from UW-Eau Claire Police Department records.

A crash with no drivers

At 6:20 p.m. on April 10, a campus officer was called to a car accident in the Water Street parking lot. The Communication Center said the vehicles were located on the south end of the lot.

When the officer arrived, she saw two Eau Claire Police Department (ECPD) officers with one male subject. The ECPD officers had collected information from the subject because the campus officer had been on another call and was unable to get to the scene immediately. Upon her arrival, the ECPD officers cleared the scene.

The officer talked with the subject about what happened. He said he drives a manual transmission vehicle and always puts the parking brake on. However, he thinks his vehicle had slipped out of gear and rolled into another vehicle.

The subject said this had happened once before, but the vehicle hit the curb and not another vehicle. The subject said he wasn’t in or near the vehicle when the incident occurred, and neither was the the owner of the struck vehicle.

The subject said he knew the owner of the other vehicle, and would contact him to let him know what happened. The officer then grabbed a camera from her squad car and took photos of the vehicles and the damage.

According to the report, the damage was not severe. Because of this, the subjects were to determine if they wanted to involve insurance companies or not. The officer had the subject fill out a non-reportable accident form, answered any questions the subject had and cleared the scene.

Forceful blow

At 8:48 a.m. on April 14, a UW-Eau Claire Grounds Shop supervisor contacted a campus officer and said a large metal sign in the Human Sciences and Services lot had been blown over from the wind

The supervisor said the sign had struck and damaged a vehicle that was parked in the lot.

Upon arrival, the officer noticed the sign was used to designate the shuttle pick-up location for the Viennese Ball. The sign had been facing northeast.

The officer checked local weather conditions and found wind gusts to be 37 mph out of the northeast. He then conducted a registration check and was able to find the vehicle’s owner in the UW-Eau Claire directory.

He took photos of the vehicle and its damage before he called the owner. The owner agreed to meet up, and the supervisor and officer lifted the sign so the owner could move his vehicle. The sign was laid flat on the ground to avoid a second occurance of it being knocked over.

The supervisor told the officer he would gather weighted items, like concrete blocks, to secure the sign once it was again placed upright. The officer gave the vehicle owner a business card with the case number on it. Since one of the damaged vehicle’s rear window was broken, the officer informed the vehicle owner of some ways he could cover it.