Excrement for Brains- The other view!

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Going where you have never been before. Careful!

Last week I related how my wife and I narrowly escaped death at the hands of a lunatic who overtook another car at the brow of a hill. He found himself in our lane and we were headed for a head-on collision. Needless to say, I was angry when I wrote that column and very shaken. Since then two things have happened: (a) I have calmed down and driven that stretch of road again, in both directions, and (b) I have thought of a different theory other than the offence was committed by someone who knew exactly what he was doing but who was reckless.

To summarize the situation, when travelling between the town of Lliria and Pedralba, the road takes us down into a deep valley, and when at the bottom we cannot see whether there is any traffic coming towards us, and neither can oncoming traffic know if there is anything there. As I drove up the other side I suddenly popped into the view of on-coming traffic, and they will see me for the very first time. To them I will appear as though a piece of toast popping up from the toaster.

Such was the case on the night in question and no doubt the driver who nearly crashed into us would have been very surprised. I now think that the driver must have been someone new to the area, because anyone who knew the road would not have done something so stupid ,simply in the interest of self preservation.  I noticed, during the day that when traffic approaces the valley from the Pedralba end, at first glance you might think that you were on a straight and level roadway. If there was a vehicle in front of you the fact that the road dips sharply would not become apparent until the last minute.

Bear in mind that this incident happened at night, and so anyone who was not familar with the area would have been in for a double surprise as I suddenly appeared and the road fell away. I prefer to believe that is what happened, rather than having almost lost our lives to someone with excrement for brains. (There are a lot of people on the road who fit this description.)

You will recall that the crash did not occur because I was already as far to the right as I could be. There was not time to correct for this, I had to be already positioned. That particularly piece of roadway has always bothered me and I always drive it on the assumption that the thing that eventually happened, would happen. However, much to my delight I came to realise that as a matter of habit I approach every crest of a hill where I cannot see over the top, in the same cautious manner.

I simply didn't even realise I was doing that!

It is wonderful to still be around to rationalise and anaylze what happened. Last year 1,459 people were not given that opportunity.

Copyright (c) 2012   Eugene  Carmichael