WHAT – a car accident.
WHEN – Tuesday, 09122006, 0720
WHERE – Wilson and Ft. Myer Drive, Arlington, Virginia.
WHY – car ran a red light.
HOW – a car travelling westbound ran a red light and struck a car going southbound.
If that was printed basically like that, you state it would be pretty boring. Probably so. So, where does the angle come in?
Hi 7th--
If I were looking for an angle for this car-crash story, I'd check to see if the person who ran the red light was drunk, had a pattern of driving drunk, had multiple moving violations, etc. Failing that, I'd check to see if the intersection was a "problem" intersection (i.e., had a history of accidents there), and if so, if the city knew about its history---and if so, the reason why they haven't done anything about it, etc.
In short, I'd run down each element of the story, looking for something to draw interest. Of course, it's perfectly possible I wouldn't find anything unusual at all. In that case, this story might not even make the paper, save for the police blotter or a local "in brief" section.