Creative "Accidents"

While out driving yesterday I came across a very peculiar scene of a car that was lying at rest on the top of the guard railing, upright, facing frontwards with its hind quarters resting against the embankment behind . There was virtually no damage to the railing, and the bend was so slight that Lewis Hamilton could have taken it at 300 kph.

How on earth was that possible? There were two middle age women sitting beside the road waiting for assistance, but I'm sure if I asked them how they were able to do that they wouldn't have a clue.

That's the third car I have come across sitting on the rails, and for only one was it evident how it got there. That one simply drove itself up the rail as the driver must have been distracted. The car had gone off the tarmac, and just before reaching a ravine it caught the rail with the left-side front and back wheels. Somehow, these became wedged leaving the right side of the car suspended out over the ravine.

I think the occupants of that car have spoken of this incident every day, even if only to themselves as that  would definitely have got their attention.

The other car I saw sitting on the railings was a station wagon. The railings were dividing the centre of opposing lanes of traffic, with oleander trees planted in between. Somehow this car had got itself up and across the railings where it sat snugly. The railing on my side was undamaged but I couldn't see the other side. Fortunately the car sat so that it didn't impede traffic on either side. A family sat huddled and terrified in among the oleanders awaiting assistance.

How did the do it? I feel sure that if I Google "strange accidents" there would turn up lots of other examples. I must do that one day.

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

Women who Wait

This is a sad story about Spain's prostitutes who sit and wait along the highways and Roundabouts. They are engaged in the oldest profession in the world, and as adult women, if they are making a free choice about what to do with their bodies, then I suppose I have nothing to say about it. However, it is a peculiar choice of work.

If the woman is having to do this kind of thing because she just cannot find any type of regular employment, while I cannot condemn her for doing so it adds to the sadness of this lifestyle.

If she is a drug junkie and has to sell her body for her next fix, then that too is sad. Of course, the message to young women everywhere is that you avoid finding yourself in this situation by not touching drugs in the first place.

If she is keeping all of her earnings that is one mitigating factor, but in reality she most likely has to pay for protection, and worse she probably is being run by a pimp. That is a serious no-no! It happens more often than not.

One day, while leaving Denia before twelve noon I passed several ladies waiting patiently beside the N-332. I'm told that they are always there, day and night and it is obvious that they are not waiting for the bus.  By simply being there they were not contributing anything at all to the dignity of women.

There was one young woman who was dressed in shorts and blouse tied at the waist. She looked quite smart and she was dancing to the sounds from her headphones, while accentuating her ample positive assets. It was before anybody had sat down to lunch, so I ask myself, did she really expect me, as a passing male motorist to stop and give her trade at that time of day?

What was I supposed to want from her that early in the day? Where would we go to discuss whatever it was that I was supposed to want from her in the middle of the heat of the day? Why was she on duty at that peculiar hour? Might she have been a single mother who had packed the children off to school and taken herself to work hoping to earn some money for the household? That's a sad possibility. I suppose she could also be a married woman who is trying to earn some extra money while getting to indulge herself in some passing trade; but I imagine that is a lot less likely.

I imagine when you are offering your very body for sex purposes and a whole day passes and no-one wants you, that must be the ultimate in depression. It's bad enough when you are cruising to meet someone whom you would like to make your permanent partner and you get not one nibble, that has to get you down, but that is a whole world removed from the kind of rejection of the prostitute.

I think that the government recognises that two people will always find a way to hook up. The best that can be hoped for is that such activity is removed from the sight of the general public.

The government of Valencia City passed a law that prohibits fornicating in the street and other public places. Why would they do that? They did it to stop people who had been carrying on in this manner.

You would have thought it obvious that such activity would be way out of order, but noooooooooo!

As though we drivers didn't already have enough to distract us.

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

A Death of The Family

One of the saddest stories of the Summer was the death of an entire family on the road that was caused, it is thought by a distraction in the family car. That led to a head-on crash with an on-coming van.

During holiday times we all set out to enjoy ourselves while on a journey of discovery. However, when we load up the car with the entire family we increase the risk to the maximum upon everyone in the family that something horrible could happen.

I don't know whether the car ran into the van, or vice-versa. I have no real idea of what was the cause of these two vehicles meeting head-on, so my comments can only be made in a general sense.

Firstly, a note that applies to all drivers: your car is not your living room, which of course you know; therefore when driving a different form of conduct is required.

Things can change so quickly when in motion that we really do need to keep our eyes glued to the lane in front of us, as well as being aware of what is happening around us.

Common sense tells us that when we get behind the wheel our bodily systems should be free from anything that will impair our judgement. When we have our family in the car this becomes absolute.

Children find having to sit still while the car is moving terribly boring. The parent who is a passenger can deal with them. The driver has to remain fixed in his or her concentration. As an example;  a large 4X4 came up behind me with a little girl who was not strapped in. The girl was distracting her mother as she drove, who suddenly realised that I had stopped at a pedestrian crossing to let the pedestrian cross.

The mother slammed on her brakes, and (fortunately) the little girl was thrown into the fascia of the car. Fortunately, because she could have been thrown out the car through the windshield.

In a column at the start of the Summer I pointed out that sleepiness while driving is probably responsible for more deaths on the road than we know. I had an experience that further underscores this thought: on one of the hotter days I had been running a couple of errands, and after lunch I was on my way home. The combination of the hot wind, (I don't have air-conditioning) and my lunch was very calming. I began to feel the effects, but I was close to home so I continued. Wrong decision!

At that stretch there was no other traffic on the road, when I closed my eyes without realising and the car touched the white line rumble strip along the side of the road. That promptly woke me up. (That is what it is there for.)

What I should have done when I felt the first effects coming on was to have immediately turned off the road and found somewhere where I could have slept it off. It really is that important!

Congratulations to those of us who survived the Summer driving season, especially if we have no injuries. I've learned from my own experience. I can only hope it might make an impression on you too.

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

Summer's Done in Spain

When the season of Summer comes to an end we usually take stock of how things turned out by including such considerations as how many tourists visited Spain; how many fires raged over the hot and dry landscape; and, unfortunately how many people died on the roads?

The answer to that last question is, 253 people made their transition from this life to the next, most prematurely. Along with a growing mass of people I believe that when we die we are simply entering through the portal of death to begin life anew, so that is not a bad thing. However, it's one thing to live a full rich life and to complete all of your major projects, and quite another to die simply because you got in your car to run an errand.

Those 253 people will probably account for 25% of the total deaths on the road for the year in Spain. A lot of families have been left devastated, which is something drivers should think about before getting in their cars while drunk. However, while it is true that in some small communities around the world there are no road deaths, in major countries there always will be a significant number of people who die, often at their own hand.

I tend to look at such statistics as part of the total number of people alive on the planet. I see that seven billion plus people are placing a severe strain on Earth's resources and when especially large numbers of people are killed, that is a part of a continuous process of the culling of our species.

Like everything else about life we still have choices. We can choose to be reasonable or reckless. We can choose to treat ourselves in a healthy manner or we can choose to stuff our bodies with poisons and trash. I was given a maximum life expectancy of 47 years when I was born, along with every male who was born in the same year in my country. A vast majority of those people did die young, but I am approaching my 77th birthday. I chose to change my lifestyle, and I was the recipient of the motherlode of good luck.

I will continue to make my contributions toward a long life. How about you? There were 253 people who actually died, but how about all those other people who were injured, some who will have to live with life changing effects for the rest of their lives.

Buckle up; drive soberly and with due care; don't drive when you need to sleep, and absent recklessness and unnecessary speed. You and I just might get to approach the magic 100 mark.

Good luck!

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael