There are many ways that being right is not a good thing. When I said the road in front of our house was potentially a lethal dose of HGV's and speeding motorists who should have gone another route and shouldn't be driving through our residential streets, I have been praying I'm not proven right. School runs and heavy traffic don't mix.
Monday morning Reuben wobbled off the pavement and into the road in front of an HGV. Fortunately the driver was looking where he was going and took evasive action which saved his life. I'm only glad I didn't see it, Toby was taking them and he watched while Reuben fell, both Toby and the Lorry driver had that horrible moment when they thought that was it.
Lot's of families saw it and multiple people called 999. At one point a helicopter was on it's way. Reuben was dropped back home by a Paramedic and luckily we were just cleaning up a few scratches and bruises. The police also dropped by. It seems they also feel that the increase in traffic is alarming but as usual the County don't see it as a problem and are prepared to leave our roads as they are unless people start getting killed.
It's a horrible feeling of helplessness and frustration, each day we leave the house ready to keep ourselves alive in the face of a danger we have no control over other than a bit of bright clothing and a helmet that's designed to protect you for slow moving impact, hardly something that would stand much chance in a contest with a 40 tonne lorry. All you have is luck, and luck on Monday was on our side.
I'm milking it for all it's worth and I've taken the opportunity to confront the county council on this, I really wish someone else round here would take it up too, I'm not sticking around to wait for the changes, but they are, so I don't get why they don't get together and fight this.
Hi Christine, I noticed you comments on the blog As Easy As Riding A Bike, and found your blog. Just a note to say good luck with the move, you wont regret it. We emigrated from Cambridge to The Netherlands 7 years ago, we were so sick of the stress and worry when cycling in England. We love it here. I liked your comment about being able to go out with friends for drink by bike. I do that so often here, tomorrow a group of girlfriends and I are cycling together to Zuidlaren for lunch, about 20km away. Last week we all cycled to the cinema together. I never did this sort of thing in England by bike. Best wishes
ReplyDeleteJudy Hembrow
Thankyou, that's lovely of you :) I moved back to the UK in 2000 having lived there in the 90's I wasn't intending to move again, I thought we'd found Ely to bring up the kids but it's just not the place we thought it would be and I found myself taking the idea of moving back to NL the best thing for us all as a family. I've given the local council such a hard time, but even if we ever do enter the 21st century here, the kids will be having their own kids by then.
ReplyDeleteHopefully we might get to meet you at some point!