An Extremely Important Cautionary Tale!

You are looking at the beginning of a guard rail over a bridge that became a railroad rail.


I have to ask you to use your imagination. During the week I came upon a most unusual accident scene. Unfortunately, I was not able to stop and take a foto because it had just happened and there were so many people in the area, I just had to keep going.

Apparently a car was travelling in the direction shown in the picture, but the driver evidently took his or her eyes off the road and drifted over to the right. The front right wheel became entangled in the rail and that acted as a guide driving the car along it and upwards. At some point the car spun around 360 degrees, pointing the car in the direction from which it had come.

The back wheels went over the rail, as well as the front left wheel, leaving only the front right wheel still firmly entangled with the rail while the rest of the car was hanging over the abyss. Fortunately, it was the gradual beginning of a 15 metre drop. However, I imagine if you were in the car it would have felt a lot different.

As an accident scene it presented an incredible sight. I think there were still people in the car as I passed as there seemed to be considerable activity around it. I have no idea whether anyone was injured, but it's a safe bet that those involved would have been extremely shocked.

There are numerous places where guardrails are tapered down into the ground as this one is. In many cases I have seen them turned at the end to avoid them becoming some kind of skid. That's a  lot safer than the blunt end that could impale a motorcyclist.

How does it happen that a car can drift off to the right or left to such a degree that it gets into such trouble? If this was a case of children in the back seat that  attracted the attention of the driver who turned his head to the extreme right, that action would have pulled the car to the right, and the rest is now history. Many years ago, I came upon a car along a straight road that had flipped onto its roof. The driver had no idea how it happened. One minute he was talking to his girlfriend in the passenger seat, and the next the car was on its roof.

The moral of the story is that when driving we really do need to keep our eyes on the road ahead. We only get to move our eyes and head within a very small arc to the right or left.

The penalty for ignoring this rule of the road can be very severe indeed, including head-on collisions and death!

Copyright (c) 2014  Eugene Carmichael

Summer Driving

Everybody's headed out of town


My wife and I have done road trips during the Summer, but we leave after the mass exodus from the city, and we come back before everyone else. Consequently our experience is much like every day driving. However,  family vacation driving during June, July, and August can be a nightmare. Firstly, it seems that drivers think they cannot have a good time if they don't gulp down great quantities of beer or alcohol. Then, because the car is loaded with the kids they will almost certainly get on the nerves of the driver, but he or she has to stay concentrated on what they are doing.

The death on the roads during Summer attests to all the things that can go wrong. What a shame because people are in pursuit of leisure and pleasure. Instead their lives are ended.

Recently, a car carrying four men was completely demolished by an oncoming truck because the driver fell asleep. He may have been one of those drivers carrying goods to a supermarket that operate on a just- in- time inventory system. Such systems usually work well, but if things go wrong for the trucker carrying replacement goods he may have to push extra hard to make up time. Falling asleep could result, ending in lives lost.

Another crash occured on the roundabout at the entrance into Chelva on the CV-35. Three people were killed instantly in that case, plus another person was taken to intensive care. Traffic was backed up for over 12 kilometres for several hours in the blazing afternoon sun. Ten minutes after this crash at 15:30, another calamity occurred when a truck and trailer overturned on a paralell road that completely blocked all traffic.

When reading about these incidents the thought that occurs to me,other than the impact on the victims and their families, is how did the other motorists cope? I suspect that most of us normally jump into the car and set off without first thinking about water and other neccessities if we get caught in such a jam.

Invariably these things happen away from built-up areas, so you wouldn't have the opportunity to just pop across the road and buy water, or to use the toilet.  Of course, whether you find yourself stuck in a traffic jam or an elevator the first thing that occurs is the need to take a piss.

We humans are funny that way. When faced with some kind of emergency we immediately need to intake or output water. Go figure!

Copyright (c) 2014  Eugene Carmichael

A City of Bikes

There were only two other bikes here when I left mine. Now there are 2,500.

It has been fifty years since I last visited Amsterdam. Only two things stood out in my memory. One of them was the concentration of bikes. We have become so accustomed to cars everywhere that we forget about the precious few countries that turn commuting into an exercise regimen. In all those countries where people are routinely obese, we could learn a lesson.

It is good to see people using bikes to travel around, but there is a downside. If you are a pedestrian the experience is a lot like being surrounded by a swarm of flies. They are silent and they are everywhere. Before you move your feet you have to look all around you, and you will surely spot a bike coming towards you.

It took a little while for me to notice that inspite of so much traffic, there are no STOP signs in Amsterdam. Tolerance is the watchword of The Netherlands, but this may be taking things too far. Having said that, the system does seem to work. There are a lot of close calls, of course, so much so as to be routine. However, I never observed a crash, and that included the struggling tourists.

The Netherlands is a curious country in that most of it is below sea level. The Dutch have brought water management to a fine art  The country has suffered floods in the past but has learned from such events. The fact that it is so flat is an open invitation to every citizen to have a bike. Everybody does, apparently, because there are 16 million inhabitants and 16 million bikes.

Cycling is not below the dignity of anyone. Government Ministers, including the Prime Minister can be seen cycling about, as does everyman in the street. It is good exercise and probably leads to Tall Person Syndrome, as perhaps the world's tallest people can be found in Holland. These are the people who are leading the way in the continuing advance of evolution.

In the midst of  the seven million bikes in Amsterdam, there are likely to be about 700,000 on the road at any given moment. However, I still managed to have very pleasent and close encounters with the latest in Jaguars, an Aston Martin, and a Masareti. I am convinced that is The Future; My Future.

It makes for an interesting comparison when thinking of future motoring being driverless cars. Holland seems to ask the question: "Yes, but what about exercise?"

The other thing that I remembered from fifty years ago was the sight of women sitting in windows selling sexual encounters. They are still there. Some things don't change.

Copyright (c) 2014  Eugene Carmichael

Near to Home

Many crashes occur close to home

It is a well known fact that many so called accidents occur close to home. That may be because when we start our journey we may not be fully prepared, and in the process of making those last minute adjustments while actually underway our attention is distracted and we slam into someone or something.

Conversely, when nearing home after a long drive we start to relax within sight of home. We allow ourselves to become distracted and before we know it tragedy strikes. I remember all too well the case of an America's Cup worker who was on his way home on his bike at night. Within sight of his apartment block, with his wife and children sitting on the balcony, a car backed out into the roadway and directly in his path. He rode straight into the car and was killed instantly.

His wife didn't realise what was happening. She only knew something terrible had happened when all the emergency vehicles gathered. Slowly the realization sunk in because he was now late in coming through the door.

Another reason why crashes happen close to home is because the topography is familiar to us to the extent that we are contemptuous of our surroundings. We drive as though we own the road. That's what appears to have happened on our estate road recently. The road is winding and in very bad condition. There is a small bridge over a little riverlet, and there is also a stop sign that is near universally ignored.

Then, one day, one driver ignored the stop warning as another driver was passing and a crash occured which left one car looking very much like the car in the picture and the other ended up in the little river among the weeds. At least one person went to hospital as when I came upon the scene there were two Guardia Civil cars and one Policia Local vehicle, plus the ambulance.

By the time I returned home all was back to normal, including the crazy drivers who ignore the stop warnings, and who race over the potholes as though they own the road.

No one will be surprised when the next crash occurs. I promise to do my best not to be a contributor.

Copyright (c) 2014  Eugene Carmichael