Every year, just under 2000 people are killed on British roads. In The States, it's around 42,000 and in Australia it's just over 1000 deaths per year. That's a terrible loss of life.
I know that not everyone who visits this blog owns a car but for those of us who do drive around, we are surely dicing with death every time we set off. Most of us try hard to obey the rules of the highway but it is very easy to make a mistake. 100% concentration throughout one's driving career is nigh on impossible. Besides, there are other road users to consider. Some of them are speed freaks, impatient or dilatory. It is hard to make allowances for their actions.
The title of this blogpost is "Almost" because I was thinking of times when I almost had a road traffic accident. I guess that if we were all honest about it, most drivers will remember "almosts" or near misses. You play them over in your mind and gradually you might forget them. Life, like the tarmacadam, rolls on.
On Tuesday, as I was heading to McDonalds after my walk on Bamford Edge, I paused at the traffic lights on Archer Road waiting to turn right. Soon red turned to red/amber and then to green. I advanced in order to turn. Ahead of me was a public bus and it kept coming! This was enough to make me wake up. Of course there was a filter at these traffic lights and in order to safely turn right I needed to wait for the green arrow. It could have so easily ended with a low speed collision and it would have been my fault entirely. It's not wise to spar with a bus!
I was reminded of a similar situation twenty five years ago. It was a Sunday morning and I was taking our Frances to a drama audition at Cheethams Music School. We were on a dual carriageway and I prepared to turn right at some lights. Again I should have waited for the green arrow but I didn't and as we crossed the other carriageway a fast car had to screech to a halt to avoid colliding with us. You could even hear the noise as he or she slammed their brakes on. Briefly, I looked in my mirror and saw the other car. Thank heavens they had their wits about them that morning.
I couldn't easily stop because of the configuration of the roads at that junction so I just drove on, grateful that we had narrowly avoided a crash and serious injuries.
The only significant car accident I have ever been involved in happened on a Scottish lane late one night in February 1978. I blogged about it here back in 2013.
Have you got any "almosts" you would like to explain?
from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/G2ig4Wk