HBG

While enjoying my coffee and chocolate doughnut at a pavement cafe this morning, I witnessed an accident only a few yards away from me.

First of all, a car with Madrid number plates parked at a bus stop. Then another car with Madrid number plates parked directly on a pedestrian crossing, immediately behind the car at the bus stop.

When approaching the pedestrian crossing there were people on it, who thought the car was stopping for them, but it didn't, it stopped right in the middle of them, making an elderly woman jump out of the way, just in time.

Each car contained an elderly Spanish couple, and I was about to return to my newspaper, when I noticed the car at the bus stop starting to reverse. It reversed straight into the car behind, causing both cars to rock loudly.

I thought 'bus stops, zebra crossings' what do they care, until I listened to the loud conversation between the two, elderly Spanish drivers. The reversing miscreant was screaming that he didn't have to look behind him because there shouldn't have been a car parked on the crossing in the first place. The enraged crossing parker was arguing just as loudly that it was illegal to park at a bus stop.

Fists were being raised and someone must have called the police, because sirens started to wail in the distance. At this point both drivers raced back to their cars and screeched off into the distance.

The temperature at the chemist showed 40 degrees.

rachelk

Ah yes, I think the heat makes us all a bit tetchy.

Hondon Voyager

Don't take a lot to make Spanish drivers tetchy

steviedeluxe

If memory serves me right, there was a spat of drivers physically attacking each other (road rage) in the UK a few years back. One or two were killed as weapons were involved. Not sure why this doesn't happen so often now - perhaps most drivers realise a fight could escalate into something serious and so don't get riled. The heat may not help, but I've seen incidents (both in the UK and in Spain) happen on cool days in winter.

Hondon Rock n Roll

On www.typicallyspanish.com today, a lady left her child in the car for 5 hours while she went off to work as she forgot to drop the child off at nursery. Needless to say the child was dead on her return. How anyone can possibly forget they have a child in their car, with temperatures in excess of 30 degrees outside can't imagine what it was like inside. How sad!

pete_l

It does, it's just as frequent an occurrence but the news channels got bored with it. In a similar vein, there was a spate of dangerous dog attacks reported some years ago. There were just as many dog attacks before and after it became fashionable for the news to carry the stories, but they just didn't make the headlines. Likewise, earlier this year the London news was all a-fluster about the number of teenage stabbings in the capital. In fact it was pretty much the same number that have been stabbed and/or killed in most years - just that someone thought it merited a news item (maybe one victim was particularly photogenic - that usually does the trick).
Sadly the media tend to decide what will be the news these days, not report it.

Hondon Voyager

unbelievable ,puts previous posts into perspective ,hopefully people will take heed of this

jdr

I can`t believe nobody looked into the car and saw the kiddie on it`s own, it was on quite a busy street by the look on the news coverage.
So sad and needless.

Hondon Voyager

Problem is jdr if you or I went to that car we would be suspected child snatchers or Paedophiles such is todays society ,sad but true .

jdr

Not in Spain, you would only have to call the police.
There was a case a little while ago where the cops broke in and got the kid out, then waited for the owner and nicked them for child abandonment.