A bad week for close calls!

We have to take extra care when these are around.

This week, ending July 5th, 2014, has been one of extreme weather, including heavy hail in the north of Spain, and heavy rain everywhere else. Life had to go on regardless under sometimes very trying conditions. At times like those our normal lack of concentration tends to become non-existant, leading to all sorts of encounters. For some reason I seem to have been in all the wrong places at all the wong times. Yet, nothing actually happened to me, however, I was observer to more than I cared to see.

There was the cyclist who merrily rode his bike into the side of the car ahead of me. The cars were turning from a major road, during which we had to cross over the sidewalk. Cyclists and pedestrians were required to Give Way to the turning traffic. The pedestrians had no problem with this,  but the cyclist was in a world of his own. Fortunately he was not moving quickly and did no damage to himself or the car. I'm so glad he didn't hit my Jag. I think I would have been cool, or at least I hoped I would have.

Same day, I was driving along the lane next to the bus lane in the city while the rain was coming down by the bucketfull. Up ahead the road turned to the left, but with a branch off to the right, which is where I needed to go. On my right was the lane for buses and taxis, meaning I had to cross over their lane. Although I was indicating a right turn the buses gave no quarter, they simply thundered on past, leaving me stopped in my lane while all other traffic carried on past. When the bus lane was clear I made my right turn. A very dangerous piece of road, engineered and designed to promote crashes.

We tend to think that road designers actually know what they are doing. Sometimes, perhaps.

Incident number three: Picture in your mind's eye two parallell secondary roads that lead into a major road on the edge of a city. I was stopped for traffic while waiting to enter secondary road one which was on my left, when a car emerged from secondary road two, indicating a right turn onto the major road. A pizza man on his scooter at the stop sign on secondary road one, saw the right turn signal of the car, that had not cancelled itself,  and misinterpreted it to mean  that the car would turn into the road the pizza man was on. So, he just moved off to cross the road, but to his horror the car continued straight for the scooter. Pizza Man screamed Stop!! I screamed Oh No! The driver stood on his brakes narrowly avoiding slamming into the scooter, and thereby avoiding some scraped paintwork on my Jag. Whew!

There were a couple other incidents where bikers passed me on the inside and continued on ahead zigzagging between the cars, or prematurely pulling out into traffic risking a broadside.

The week is now over, the sun is back, and my Jag is safe and sound in the garage. The irony of everything is that when there is such bad weather I would not even consider taking the Jag out. However, my internal fan system is out of commission on my everyday use Volvo at present. The moral of the story is that a car is a car, and it is to be used in all manner of weather. I have been treating my Jag as thought it is a little kitten, rather than a bg cat. I usually wash it before putting it in the garage, and then I cover it, including absorbing sponge where it might get knocked as I move around the garage.

Mother Nature has a way of bringing us to our senses!

Stay focused and aware of cyclists, and motorcyclists at all times. It would help if they wore reflective vests to help us drivers to spot them.

"Be Seen to be Safe!"

Copyright (c) 2014  Eugene Carmichael