Random Musings

Three times yesterday, I had a scary experience on the road, for the exact same reason.

I was going up a flyover. It was a one lane road. The speed was decent. As you drive in this manner on a flyover, you don’t expect surprises. So you tend to be looking in the rear view mirror, look to your left or right, veer a bit to the left or right extremes of the lane, etc. And some of which was what I was doing, as I drove up that road.

When all of a sudden, I see these two old ladies, cleaning the street on the side, without any kind of protection (like traffic divertors, etc.). It took me by such a surprise that I would have almost ran over them, if not for a last second switch. Wow..

A nearly same thing happened on one more flyover, only it was not as close a shave this time. Here there were these three chaps, merrily painting the side of the flyover. There IS NO side lane in these flyovers and the lane is almost touching the edge. So when these chaps work on the side, they are ‘on the road’. And at the pace at which cars are going, there is a genuine risk of driving over them. WHY do they not realise this? They are so cool, they work as if they were working in a lab, comfortably without a trace of worry. And for us drivers, there is so much anxiety..

And then on the way back, a similar incident happened, except it was not a pedestrian, but a car. Again, on a flyover, with fast paced holiday traffic. I was in the left lane. There was space between my vehicle and the edge of the road, and a motorcyle chose to pass me from the left. Which was fine. I saw him and kept room for him on my side. When suddenly, I saw a white van parked on the left, perhaps on account of some car problem. But no blinkers, no warning. Since I was off the edge, I had enough time and room to move in a bit and pass the vehicle from its right. But rememeber that motorbike which was coming from my left. Trying to pass me, at good speed, assuming the road ahead to be nice and empty, as it should be, on a flyover. Only to suddenly find a vehicle parked in the front, in the dark of the night, and with very little room to do anything at all, other than try and jam the brakes hard. Which is what he did and came to a halt, a few inches before that vehicle.

Whatever was the problem with that car, why did it have to stop on the side and stay there, on the top of the flyover?? And if it had to, where were the blinking lights??

In all three cases, the culprits concerned (the pedestrians in the first two cases, and this vehicle in the last case) would not even have an inkling to the kind of danger they were creating! They were just so cool, man. I felt like getting down and beating them up. After all, if they want to commit suicide, why don’t they do it some other way, without getting others into trouble??!