When Calamity comes to Call

Fallas celebrations in Valencia this year drew more than three million people from out of town. They came from near and far and despite some rain it was a great success. Hotels are booked a full year in advance, and some are fully booked even earlier than that. Many young people sleep on the beach, which is not a bad alternative to trying to drive back to their homes at some very early hour of the morning.

A number of young students attending Barcelona universities travelled to Valencia by bus, and they returned on the morning of the 20th leaving Valencia at 3am. Four buses were booked to ferry Erasmus exchange students. Three of the buses arrived safely, the fourth one didn't because it crashed close to its destination and the main speculation why it did is because the driver may have fallen asleep. If that is the case it would be understandable. So many times after the celebrations are all over everyone piles into the car or bus and they all fall asleep, leaving the driver to stay wide awake. This is always very dangerous.

I have no doubt that the drivers were all  responsible and that they tried to get their rest. Where? No-one can sleep during Fallas with the noise level at its highest. For years residents of Valencia city leave during Fallas just to find peace and quiet. The problem with fatigue behind the wheel is that you only need to close your eyes once never to open them again.

Fourteen beautiful young women died in that crash that the driver survived. He was not being irresponsible or reckless. I'm certain that he was doing his best to get his precious cargo home safely. The ramifications of a tragedy like this is so widespread as to collapse the imagination. Of the fourteen who died, two were from Germany, one from Romania, one from Austria, one from France, eight from Italy, and one from Uzbekistan. That means family members from all of those countries had to scramble to get to Barcelona. In addition another 46 students were injured, plus the driver. In total twenty nationalities were on board the bus, so the impact has a very wide reach.

A tragedy is made so much worse when young people's lives are cut short and they don't get to realise their full potential.

At times life seems to be so unfair.

Copyright (c) 2016

Eugene Carmichael

Dangerous driving time

This year Easter has come early. That is welcome, but it has come up against the Fallas celebrations in Valencia and that has caused not just a little confusion.

Fallas is Valencia's biggest fiesta of the year which starts just before the first of March and continues through until March 19th. On this day we celebrate el Dia de San Jose, or Father's Day, and unlike Father's Day in most other countries, which tends to be quiet and sedate, we blow things up and burn things down. The 19th is also the final day of Las Fallas. The monuments have been put in place for five days. More than three million people have come to view close to one thousand monuments and now it's time to close this chapter until next year.

The city shuts about 900 streets making driving practically non-existent. People have to walk everywhere, but then you would want to because there is so much to see. There were, as usual, some masterpieces erected, and by all accounts the fiesta  was a tremendous success.

I deliberately avoided the whole thing. I took a complete rest from Fallas this year. Sometimes I find its refreshing to do that because it does get to seem like a lot of the same thing. However, there were a couple of monuments that I saw in the papers and on television that were exceptional. It all depends on what was happening at and before the time the designers sit down to plan next year's event. There are so many fraud and corruption trials going on, and all manner of things happening on the political scene that I think designers were spoilt for choice.

Many people who live in Valencia leave the city and come to our part of the country to get away from the noise because we will not have our celebrations for the next two weeks. No matter what other reasons are given for Fallas the favourite one is to make as much noise as `possible to chase away the old man of Winter. Since it works without fail every year we keep doing it.

From the driving perspective there were all those people getting out of town at the same time so many more were flooding in. No sooner did Fallas end did Holy Week begin the very next day with Palm Sunday walk. There were preparations for that taking place in the midst of Fallas, and the mass exodus for parts elsewhere to celebrate Easter began. Road traffic numbers swelled to alarming proportions but during the first day no traffic deaths were reported anywhere in Spain. That couldn't last, of course, and by Sunday more than twenty people had died, four of those were motorcyclists and fifteen were students from Barcelona who travelled down to Valencia for Fallas by bus.

It is always a tragedy when people, especially young people die at the very time they are trying to have a good time. We have another week to go before everybody returns, so let us keep our fingers crossed that they do so in safety.

(c) Copyright 2016

Eugene Carmichael

Learn something new everyday.

In my other blog, http://formenseyesonly.blogspot.com I wrote about being older and wiser. As drivers the opportunity to continue to learn our skills is unlimited. Every metre of road has something to teach us. Every roundabout is a lesson to learn. As an old person behind the wheel I would unhesitatingly say that the greatest lesson I have learnt over the years is to always be prepared through anticipation.

My latest lesson came at night as I approached a roundabout with a pedestrian crossing. From my left came two lanes of traffic, one line would turn off to my left, the other would continue on the roundabout. So, there I was, still moving as I approached the junction with my eyes left. I then looked straight ahead as I began to stop, but on my right there was a cluster of people who were watching me, waiting for me to see that they were waiting to cross in front of me.

What a shock! I should have been aware of them first and I should have stopped before I did. They were the last element I took note of, and considering it is not the custom of people in this country to wait to be given their rights, I am very fortunate I did not knock someone down due to my inattention.

So, driving is an on-going class in motion, and the occasional fine is an educational fee. The ground rules are to select the correct speed for the situation we are in, and to avoid any substances that will impair our concentration, and to focus that concentration on the road ahead.

I think I will welcome the day when all traffic is driven by computers, provided the software is of a sufficiently high calibre.

Copyright (c) 2016

Eugene Carmichael 

A super crash averted

For this story you will have to use your imagination.

I was driving easterly on a long, undulating straight road when all of a sudden two cars overtook me from behind. The second of those cars decides that he will also overtake the car in front of him, which he proceeds to do.

One of the dips in the road is so pronounced that when cars are down in it they cannot be seen by other traffic, nor can they see other traffic. Suddenly two cars came up from the dip with one of the cars overtaking the other. Now we have four cars, with one each on the wrong side of the road and closing fast. With some fast swerving the over-takers managed to get back on their correct sides by avoiding running headfirst into the cars that were on their correct sides.

It was a very close thing indeed, and I was the observer.

There was one other car far up ahead, and that was a police car carrying a high ranking officer, judging by his medals. I deliberately did not speed up to the point where I would be riding closely behind them, but the two who overtook me were trying their best show they were speeding.

At the far end there is one final rise to get over, but lately I had noticed that there was often a police car stationed to record your speed when you came over the crest of the hill. Whatever speed you were travelling at that time was what would be recorded. However, by that time everybody had slowed down because of the police car in the lead. Shortly after that point there is a four-way junction with traffic lights. When I arrived the were all patiently waiting in line for the lights to go green for us.

So, my question is: "What worth was it to nearly kill people in order to catch up with a senior police officer, and to go through police radar, just to have to wait for the green light along with everybody else?"

This is a classic example of how people get killed due to stupidity on the parts of drivers. Hopefully, cars that drive themselves will be smarter than that!

Copyright 2016

Eugene Carmichael