Two odd little accidents within the space of minutes around 7 o’clock on Saturday evening.
The first was on one of the more open stretches of the main road – houses set well back on one side only. The driver had just closed the bus doors, ready to move away from the stop, when I heard a strange metallic scraping sound – looked out of the window where I was sitting, near the back of the bus to see a smallish motorbike, still in its own lane travelling in the opposite direction, but just coming to the end of a slide on its side, driver still astride.
He, well protected by leathers & a helmet, tried to get up but fell back, putting his arms up in a gesture to protect his head.
There was nothing he could obviously have collided with, & he clearly had not been going at all fast, so it is a complete mystery why he should have gone over like that. Damp spot on the road? Another vehicle coming out from behind the bus, causing the biker to wobble? – if so they had gone back in or at least stayed back well out of my sight.
The bus driver moved off regardless; he wasn’t in a terribly good mood & it was his last run of the day, so it is possible he just decided there was no need for him to hang around, but more likely I think that he really was unaware – almost certainly his mirror would be angled to show anything coming out from behind, not something on the ground.
An elderly lady further forwards stood & seemed inclined to shout at the driver to stop, but nobody else joined in. Since another car, which had been travelling (not at all fast) behind the bike, had stopped well clear, turned his headlights on full & opened his door to get out, I decided there was nothing to be gained from our stopping too. A girl sitting close to the elderly lady rang the emergency services, & was still explaining when she herself got off the bus about half a mile down the road.
The second (near) accident happened just after I got off at my stop. As I waited on the edge of the pavement a tremendous shouting erupted from the car just passing in front of me, which came to an immediate halt. The offside rear door was swinging open & the noise continued – youngsters I assumed.
The driver (not a young man) got out, I turned my head to look as I crossed the road, & gained a confused impression that it was a dog which was trying to make its escape from the car, only to be disabused of that notion as the woman in the front passenger seat began screeching at someone too small for me to see Put your foot back in, else we cannot close the door.
Well at least it hadn’t happened on a busy main road or motorway.
All I witnessed were two people, their family & friends plus emergency services, having lucky escapes from real personal pain & grim tragedy, unlike all those caught up in what we used to call motorway madness in Somerset on Friday night.
We haven’t been much troubled with fireworks this year; mostly they have been confined to last weekend & this, whereas in earlier years there were bangs & explosions most nights for about a month. Whether this happy circumstance has been brought about by stricter controls on the sale of fireworks or is just another example of people being careful with their money – who can tell.
Even so, smoke was clearly visible on Saturday night, hanging in the damp air as the temperature dropped rapidly, so it comes as no great surprise to hear that smoke from a nearby bonfire night event is suspected of causing drivers to brake sharply on the M5, with tragic results.
Amidst the collateral damage from that awful accident, our new Secretary of State for Transport Justine Greening is going to find it difficult to go ahead with the raising of the motorway speed limit to 80mph. Even before that, Saturday’s newspaper carried the surprising news that road accident statistics show that deaths on the road are already up in the first half of this year – surprisingly so, given the drop in traffic because of the recession & the supposed widespread adoption of more steady & fuel-conscious driving habits.
