Last night coming home, I was very nearly witness to a horrendous car crash. I was walking from my bus stop to my road. My road crosses the South Circular at a junction with traffic lights, and pedestrian crossings, and car smashes are commonplace.
From behind me came a bus. It had just started its long journey to Kings Cross. My bus is only the second on its route and strangely, there was no one waiting to board. Even more strangely, I was the only person to have got off my bus at my stop. More strange still was the almost complete lack of other vehicles on the usually busy S. Circular. This was 7 pm. The bus driver put his foot down, determined to get through the lights before they changed. I don't think he was exceeding the 40 mph speed limit, but it seemed fast because it's rarely possible, not at that time.
It was alarming to actually watch a potential car crash unfold before me. I could see the blue Fiat move away from the gap in the Central Reservation to complete its right turn* into my road. I could see the bus seemingly gathering speed as the noticeable incline plateaus. I was visualising the impact of a speeding bus driving into the side of a flimsy car. I even looked to see if there were passengers were on the bus. I reached into my bag for my phone. The Fiat driver accelerated sharply and the bus managed to pass by with inches to spare. Crash averted!
I then fell to thinking about what I should do? I was the only person on foot - where was everybody? My instinct was already to dial 999. For whom should I ask? By the time I got home I decided that I would ask for police and ambulance. I wouldn't know if an ambulance was actually required. But better to err on the side of caution. It's hardly a crank call - a bus has just ploughed into a car. I don't know the number of casualties. I can give precise location. How calm would I be?
If there were casualties I would not really know what to do. Except, dial 999, make sure no clever clogs tries to move someone who may have a neck or spinal injury, and try and persuade the dazed but otherwise unharmed from fleeing. Do I then have to hang around for the police and ambulance to arrive, particularly important considering that I had an increasingly urgent need to get home? Have I done my duty by calling 999 and giving my details. If I am required to give a witness statement they will know how to contact me.
Inconsequential in the end, but it was an experience that made me question my ability to react correctly. I then read Mr Reynolds account of being cut out from a crashed car Under the Plastic - all in a day's work for him.
And then, while reading a completely unrelated news story I came across Accidents on Long Island. My first reaction was that it is sensationalist or mawkish, but then I decided, it's clever.
There are no bodies, dead or maimed. Just smashed up car after smashed up car. Obviously, many of the recent ones are in snow or ice. Irrespective of the weather conditions, most of the explanations given are 'lost control of vehicle'.
I would imagine that many of those drivers thought they were in control, many probably thought they were good drivers. I would imagine that many misunderestimated the road conditions, which is pretty unforgiveable.
What also struck me, not as a hard-and-fast rule, but as an underlying theme, is that most of the SUV/4x4s etc overturned, whereas most of the normal cars remained upright.
All these tales and pictures of car smashes are common place. Sometimes people leave with no more than trivial injuries and a tale to tell, but so often, lives are destroyed, or changed beyond recognition. We treat it as normal, as an inevitable side-effect of the convenience of being able to go wherever and whenever.
I know many people who justify driving around for personal safety reasons, which I'm not knocking - it's about perceptions - although I think I'd rather be momentarily terrified by a figure emerging from a shadow then be cut out of twisted metal, or worse.
But what does amaze me is the number of people who think I am putting myself at risk by walking around an urban area at night (I am) but seem to have no perception of the risk of driving. I have a friend who has remarked, "I know I'm safe driver but there are so many arseholes out there I drive as if everybody's an arsehole" - which, of course, increases the safety of her driving. (Although no doubt in ten or thirty years time,if not now, the arseholes will cariacature her as timid 'old woman' as they speed on towards their encounter with a telegraph** pole).
* in Britain, Ireland, India, Australia, New Zealand and a few other places we drive on the left, so if you drive on the right, mentally reverse these terms
** why do we call them telegraph poles when they generally carry telephone wires?
