Santa Ana Second Floor Car Crash

2018Viral photo / news eventdead
Santa Ana Second Floor Car Crash is a January 2018 viral photo of a white Nissan Altima lodged in a dental office's second floor after hitting a center median, spawning "Bae Come Over" jokes and Harry Potter references on Twitter.

The Santa Ana Second Floor Car Crash is a viral news photo from January 2018 showing a white Nissan Altima lodged in the second floor of a dental office in Santa Ana, California after the driver hit a center median at extreme speed. The surreal image spread rapidly on Twitter, where users turned it into "Bae Come Over" jokes and Harry Potter references, with one tweet collecting over 207,000 retweets and 464,000 likes4.

TL;DR

The Santa Ana Second Floor Car Crash is a viral news photo from January 2018 showing a white Nissan Altima lodged in the second floor of a dental office in Santa Ana, California after the driver hit a center median at extreme speed.

Overview

The meme centers on a photograph of a white sedan with its front end buried in the second-story window of a small office building. The image looks physically impossible, like something out of a movie set, which is exactly what made it so shareable. The car had been traveling at extreme speed, hit a raised center median, launched into the air, and embedded itself in a dental office at 319 East 17th Street in Santa Ana, California3. Twitter users seized on the absurdity of the image, riffing on it with "Bae Come Over" setups and pop culture quotes.

On January 14, 2018, at approximately 5:30 a.m., a motorist speeding north on French Street in Santa Ana hit the raised center median on 17th Street2. The impact launched the white Nissan Altima into the air, sending it across three lanes and more than fifty feet horizontally before it slammed into the second floor of a dental office building5. The driver later admitted to using narcotics at the time of the crash1.

The Orange County Fire Authority posted a photo of the wreck to Twitter that morning, and the image immediately looked unreal. Capt. Stephen Horner of the OCFA told reporters that "this is not a situation that happens every day"1. Both occupants were extracted from the vehicle by firefighters from Los Angeles County and the OCFA while the car's front end was still lodged high in the building2. Twitter user @KHOLMESlive also posted video footage of the aftermath the same day4.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter (Orange County Fire Authority tweet)
Key People
Orange County Fire Authority, @livestrongfree, @KrangTNelson
Date
2018
Year
2018

On January 14, 2018, at approximately 5:30 a.m., a motorist speeding north on French Street in Santa Ana hit the raised center median on 17th Street. The impact launched the white Nissan Altima into the air, sending it across three lanes and more than fifty feet horizontally before it slammed into the second floor of a dental office building. The driver later admitted to using narcotics at the time of the crash.

The Orange County Fire Authority posted a photo of the wreck to Twitter that morning, and the image immediately looked unreal. Capt. Stephen Horner of the OCFA told reporters that "this is not a situation that happens every day". Both occupants were extracted from the vehicle by firefighters from Los Angeles County and the OCFA while the car's front end was still lodged high in the building. Twitter user @KHOLMESlive also posted video footage of the aftermath the same day.

How It Spread

The jokes started almost immediately after the OCFA's tweet. Twitter user @livestrongfree quoted Molly Weasley's line from *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets* alongside the photo, and the tweet exploded to over 207,000 retweets and 464,000 likes. The connection was obvious: in the film, the Weasley family flies a car into a tree, and here was a real car stuck in a building's second story.

"Bae Come Over" jokes followed the standard template. @KrangTNelson posted one referencing the Pee Tape that picked up over 1,600 retweets and 11,000 likes. Other users including @McJesse and @Useronweed added their own versions, all riffing on the same premise: someone was so eager to get somewhere that they launched a car into a building.

Dashcam footage from an Orange County Transportation Authority bus captured the exact moment of the collision and went viral on its own. The video showed just how close the speeding car came to hitting the bus and other vehicles before it went airborne. Motel surveillance footage also emerged, showing a car passing through the intersection just a second before the crash.

Major news outlets covered the crash itself extensively. Fox News, the Los Angeles Times, Inverse, Mashable, and Streetsblog California all ran stories. Time Magazine even featured the photo on its Instagram account. While news coverage focused on the crash, the meme spread happened almost entirely on Twitter, where the image circulated as a reaction photo and joke template throughout January 2018.

How to Use This Meme

The Santa Ana car crash image typically works in two formats:

1

"Bae Come Over" setup: Post a scenario where someone says "come over" or implies urgency, then attach the car-in-building photo as the absurd response. The joke is that the person was so motivated they literally flew a car into a second-story window.

2

Pop culture quote overlay: Pair the image with a movie or TV quote about flying cars, reckless driving, or doing the impossible. The Harry Potter angle (Molly Weasley scolding about the flying car) was the most popular version.

Cultural Impact

The crash itself drew attention to road safety issues on 17th Street in Santa Ana. Streetsblog California used the incident to highlight that the street is over 102 feet wide from curb to curb, and that the city had already been planning a road diet to reduce travel lanes and add protected bike lanes. The fact that the car crossed three lanes before hitting the median and still had enough momentum to reach a second-story building illustrated the dangers of wide, high-speed urban roads.

Inverse noted that vehicle-on-building collisions are more common than people think, with an average of 60 cars crashing into retail stores, office buildings, and restaurants every day in the United States, killing over 500 people annually according to Ameriprise Auto and Home Insurance. This crash stood out because of the second-story angle, which turned a common type of accident into something visually extraordinary.

Fun Facts

The car flew more than fifty feet horizontally to reach the second floor, crossing the full width of 17th Street.

A city bus passed the crash site just seconds after impact, narrowly avoiding the flying car.

The crash started a small fire after the car embedded itself in the building.

A specialized fire truck had to be brought in from Los Angeles to extract the vehicle.

Crews planned to use a crane to pull the car out of the dental office.

Frequently Asked Questions

Santa Ana Second Floor Car Crash

2018Viral photo / news eventdead
Santa Ana Second Floor Car Crash is a January 2018 viral photo of a white Nissan Altima lodged in a dental office's second floor after hitting a center median, spawning "Bae Come Over" jokes and Harry Potter references on Twitter.

The Santa Ana Second Floor Car Crash is a viral news photo from January 2018 showing a white Nissan Altima lodged in the second floor of a dental office in Santa Ana, California after the driver hit a center median at extreme speed. The surreal image spread rapidly on Twitter, where users turned it into "Bae Come Over" jokes and Harry Potter references, with one tweet collecting over 207,000 retweets and 464,000 likes.

TL;DR

The Santa Ana Second Floor Car Crash is a viral news photo from January 2018 showing a white Nissan Altima lodged in the second floor of a dental office in Santa Ana, California after the driver hit a center median at extreme speed.

Overview

The meme centers on a photograph of a white sedan with its front end buried in the second-story window of a small office building. The image looks physically impossible, like something out of a movie set, which is exactly what made it so shareable. The car had been traveling at extreme speed, hit a raised center median, launched into the air, and embedded itself in a dental office at 319 East 17th Street in Santa Ana, California. Twitter users seized on the absurdity of the image, riffing on it with "Bae Come Over" setups and pop culture quotes.

On January 14, 2018, at approximately 5:30 a.m., a motorist speeding north on French Street in Santa Ana hit the raised center median on 17th Street. The impact launched the white Nissan Altima into the air, sending it across three lanes and more than fifty feet horizontally before it slammed into the second floor of a dental office building. The driver later admitted to using narcotics at the time of the crash.

The Orange County Fire Authority posted a photo of the wreck to Twitter that morning, and the image immediately looked unreal. Capt. Stephen Horner of the OCFA told reporters that "this is not a situation that happens every day". Both occupants were extracted from the vehicle by firefighters from Los Angeles County and the OCFA while the car's front end was still lodged high in the building. Twitter user @KHOLMESlive also posted video footage of the aftermath the same day.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter (Orange County Fire Authority tweet)
Key People
Orange County Fire Authority, @livestrongfree, @KrangTNelson
Date
2018
Year
2018

On January 14, 2018, at approximately 5:30 a.m., a motorist speeding north on French Street in Santa Ana hit the raised center median on 17th Street. The impact launched the white Nissan Altima into the air, sending it across three lanes and more than fifty feet horizontally before it slammed into the second floor of a dental office building. The driver later admitted to using narcotics at the time of the crash.

The Orange County Fire Authority posted a photo of the wreck to Twitter that morning, and the image immediately looked unreal. Capt. Stephen Horner of the OCFA told reporters that "this is not a situation that happens every day". Both occupants were extracted from the vehicle by firefighters from Los Angeles County and the OCFA while the car's front end was still lodged high in the building. Twitter user @KHOLMESlive also posted video footage of the aftermath the same day.

How It Spread

The jokes started almost immediately after the OCFA's tweet. Twitter user @livestrongfree quoted Molly Weasley's line from *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets* alongside the photo, and the tweet exploded to over 207,000 retweets and 464,000 likes. The connection was obvious: in the film, the Weasley family flies a car into a tree, and here was a real car stuck in a building's second story.

"Bae Come Over" jokes followed the standard template. @KrangTNelson posted one referencing the Pee Tape that picked up over 1,600 retweets and 11,000 likes. Other users including @McJesse and @Useronweed added their own versions, all riffing on the same premise: someone was so eager to get somewhere that they launched a car into a building.

Dashcam footage from an Orange County Transportation Authority bus captured the exact moment of the collision and went viral on its own. The video showed just how close the speeding car came to hitting the bus and other vehicles before it went airborne. Motel surveillance footage also emerged, showing a car passing through the intersection just a second before the crash.

Major news outlets covered the crash itself extensively. Fox News, the Los Angeles Times, Inverse, Mashable, and Streetsblog California all ran stories. Time Magazine even featured the photo on its Instagram account. While news coverage focused on the crash, the meme spread happened almost entirely on Twitter, where the image circulated as a reaction photo and joke template throughout January 2018.

How to Use This Meme

The Santa Ana car crash image typically works in two formats:

1

"Bae Come Over" setup: Post a scenario where someone says "come over" or implies urgency, then attach the car-in-building photo as the absurd response. The joke is that the person was so motivated they literally flew a car into a second-story window.

2

Pop culture quote overlay: Pair the image with a movie or TV quote about flying cars, reckless driving, or doing the impossible. The Harry Potter angle (Molly Weasley scolding about the flying car) was the most popular version.

Cultural Impact

The crash itself drew attention to road safety issues on 17th Street in Santa Ana. Streetsblog California used the incident to highlight that the street is over 102 feet wide from curb to curb, and that the city had already been planning a road diet to reduce travel lanes and add protected bike lanes. The fact that the car crossed three lanes before hitting the median and still had enough momentum to reach a second-story building illustrated the dangers of wide, high-speed urban roads.

Inverse noted that vehicle-on-building collisions are more common than people think, with an average of 60 cars crashing into retail stores, office buildings, and restaurants every day in the United States, killing over 500 people annually according to Ameriprise Auto and Home Insurance. This crash stood out because of the second-story angle, which turned a common type of accident into something visually extraordinary.

Fun Facts

The car flew more than fifty feet horizontally to reach the second floor, crossing the full width of 17th Street.

A city bus passed the crash site just seconds after impact, narrowly avoiding the flying car.

The crash started a small fire after the car embedded itself in the building.

A specialized fire truck had to be brought in from Los Angeles to extract the vehicle.

Crews planned to use a crane to pull the car out of the dental office.

Frequently Asked Questions