T-boned

[A. Maberry]

I was in Portland last summer at a reunion and someone mentioned that one
of our (late) classmates was killed in an automobile wreck, because the
had run a red light and was t-boned in the intersection. I took it to mean
that his car was hit amidships, so to speak. A PDX expression?

Allen
maberry at u.washington.edu

On Tue, 5 Jun 2001, Peter A. McGraw wrote:

> Two nights ago I was watching the local Portland (OR) TV news and there was
> one of the usual traffic accident reports.  According to the anchor, a car
> "ran a red light and T-boned into a Tri-Met bus."  Unfortunately they
> didn't manage to get their "sky-cam" there in time (drat!) to show an
> aerial view of the scene, so I can only infer that she meant the car plowed
> into the middle of the bus at a right angle so that the two vehicles formed
> a T.
>
> I swear I've never heard this (or any other verbal) use of "T-bone" before.
> Have I just led a sheltered life, or is this a new usage?
>
> Peter Mc.
>
> ****************************************************************************
>                                Peter A. McGraw
>                    Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
>                             pmcgraw at linfield.edu
>