Witness

Every day we hear of collisions taking place throughout the country, but rarely do we bear witness, and hopefully, even more rare are we directly involved ourselves. As a reminder, in Spain the law is that as a bystander to an automobile crash we are duty bound to render assistance until the scene comes under the control of emergency services

It was my unpleasant experience to be primary witness to a crash in the early hours of the day. In telling this tale it should serve as a good caution as the circumstances are all too ripe for the type of collision that occurred.

The place was the town of Vilamarxant, to the east of downtown Valencia. It is one of a hundred such towns with narrow streets that crisscross throughout. Driving through such areas is a nightmare, because typically there are those drivers who do know the rules on right-of-way, and those who do not have a clue.

On this occasion I had driven my car to a place where I wanted to park, and after locking the car I waited for a passing car before crossing the street. As the approaching car drew abreast of the cross street there suddenly appeared from the right a van that was moving at about 50 kmh speed. That resulted in a severe side impact that caved in the passenger door of the car. Unfortunately, the car was being driven by a mother taking her daughter to school, and the daughter was sitting in the front seat. I estimate that the daughter was about eleven.

For this to happen in front of my eyes was a real shock that made me actually jump. My mind slowed the action down to a manageable level so that I could take in what was happening. One minute the car was proceeding along towards me, and all seemed to be normal. The appearance of the van from the side street was so unexpected as there was no sound to forewarn of its presence. It struck the car as though it was a precision guided missile, and on impact it bounced back.

Barely a moment had passed before both drivers were out of their vehicles accusing each other of being in the wrong. There were several things wrong with this situation in my view. It’s good if we review each carefully.

The general rule is that when at a cross street, the right of way goes to the vehicle approaching you from your right. So, instantly the mother was suspect as being the cause of the collision for not giving way to the van that came from her right.
Both vehicles were proceeding at a speed far in excess of safety. Both drivers seemed to think that no one else was using the road that day. I had just made that same drive down that street and had avoided a crash by driving at walking pace at the crossings. I did encounter a car from my right to whom I owed right of way, and that was done safely.
The mother had her child sitting in the front passenger seat, although she was about eleven. The law does not disallow this provided the child is properly restrained, but in reality this is not a good idea. The young girl appeared not to have been physically injured, but she suffered the brunt of the impact and was quite seriously shaken.
Whether driving through a small town or an urbanisation the probability for this type of crash is very high. Both converging drivers should be prepared to stop and agree who is to proceed first. However, I’m sure it doesn’t always happen that way, but we do otherwise at our peril.

When the local police came and surveyed the scene they advised the lady driver that she was the cause of the crash as she had failed to give way to the van. She protested that she was driving on the priority road, but it was pointed out to her that both roads had equal standing.

That was not a very good start to one’s day.

Copyright (c) 2008 Eugene Carmichael