From the sublime to the ridiculous

Monday was spent at Sunny Hunny - Hunstanton in Norfolk for the uninitiated. It was an amazingly hot September day, apparently the hottest September day recorded since 1942. It was too hot for my liking though, I do tend to flake out if it gets over 25 degrees celsius - I had expected it to be bearable by the sea but there was no breeze coming in from the water at all so I retrreated indoors to the Sealife Center to visit the fishies.

The tide was turning when we arrived and the sea was going out, after we'd been there for a few hours the sea must have gone to a good half a mile out. Many of the sea front shops and businesses had sand bags around the front of their premises because ultra high tides had been predicted - something to do with the unusual alignment of the sun and moon exercising gravitational pull on the tides. The moon for the last few nights has been huge and so bright it hurts to look at it.

It was a lovely day out though especially as on the way there we had seen a stoat trying to grab some roadkill. I've never seen a stoat before and I get a real kick out of seeing our wildlife.

Yesterday morning I set off of for dialysis half an hour later than unusual and the traffic on the way to Bury St Edmunds was much heavier at that time of day. I was the third car back from Elveden crossroads when the lights changed for us to cross. We set off and about half a mile down the road the car in front of me overtook car no 1. a red Citroen Saxo which was pootling along at about 50 mph. I had enough clear road to overtake as well so I did and pulled in again, the car ahead of me motored off into the distance.

Meanwhile behind me a young girl was overtaking everything thing she could and she ended up overtaking the Golf that had been behind me before I overtook the Saxo, and the Saxo itself. Then all hell seemed to break loose. A white van coming in the other direction rounded a bend which was about 300 yeards ahead of me and started to lose control - it looked like it was going to flip over in my lane but instead it started a series of S bends narrowly avoiding hitting me! I glanced in my rear view mirror in time to see it smash into the Saxo. The Saxo rose up into the air, it was like one of those slow motion moments from a movie and I could see bits of both vehicles just explode around them. It was just awful. Of course my brain shut down for a few seconds and as I had been going about 60-65 myself I was round the bend (huh literally I think) before my brain gears reengaged and found a relatively safe place to stop and call the police.

While I was stopping I remember the girl who overtook both cars was close behind me and I thought to myself bloody hell she's gonna overtake me too now, either that or crash into me. She did go past me once I stopped but she stopped in one of the farm tracks further along. I was on the phone to the dispatcher when I saw the girl walking towards me, she apparently was also on the phone to the emergency services. I got out to see if she was OK - her name was Laura and she was 19, she was extremely shaky (as was I) and we stood around for a few minutes waving at traffic to slow them down and making calls to various relatives, employers and dialysis units. The ambulance, police and fire brigade arrived really quickly and we didn't want to get underfoot so I moved my car to a safer spot off the road and then we walked back to the accident site to see about giving a statement to the police.

When we got there I could see that the little red Saxo was a complete write-off but the passenger compartment looked intact - God bless those crumple zones! The driver was sitting in the ambulance but she was fine, a little bruised and dazed but she was OK. The driver of the van was wandering round looking pissed off and he was giving Laura and I really filthy looks. I heard snatches of his conversation to someone who turned out to be in the Golf that had been behind me (...black car ... rocketed off). The police were too busy clearing up to take any info so we just loitered by the ambulance. The Saxo driver's boyfriend arrived and when she saw him she just burst into hysterical tears, the poor love, I felt awful for her - I was shocked myself so who knows what was going on with her emotions.

Finally another policewoman arrived and was able to take our witness statements. Just as Laura was saying that she was in the black Clio the first policewoman who had sent us away joined us and said "Oh, so you're the driver of the black Clio!" and pulled our policewoman away for a quiet word. Then they came back and I was told I could go but poor Laura had to stay behind.

I had just got back to my car and was waiting to pull away when I saw a police car reversing up the road towards me - they were bringing Laura back to her car. She got out looking miserable and she came over to tell mw that the police were saying the accident was her fault and she might be charged with dangerous driving. I think that's a bit trumped up myself. That van came hurtling round the corner and he started to lose control a good 200-300 yards ahead of me. I think he overreacted when he saw a car pulling in after overtaking, braked sharply on a bend and simply lost control on a damp slippery road. If it's anyone's "fault", it's his.

I hope I don't have to go to court over this.