While working in my garden, beneath the sunshine of a beautiful Sunday morning, I heard a distinctive sequence of sounds that I associate with a one-car collision, originating from a quarter mile down the road. First came a deep thump, followed about 1 second later by a dull, metallic thud. Two seconds later, tires screeched on pavement. The sequence ended with a second pair of thump and thud.
I walked out to the center of the road road. A quarter mile down, a moderately old import sedan had parked itself on the side of the road, facing the wrong direction, and straddling a shallow culvert that passed beneath a gravel driveway.
I don't see all that clearly in the distance, but from the body movements and affect, I clearly discerned a male, teenage driver emerge from the car, apparently uninjured. He clapped both hands on his head, looked up at the sky, then held a small device to his ear as he walked around the car. The driver did not appear ataxic (drunk). There did not appear to be a passenger in the car. The car's grill and front bumper seemed to be undamaged.
My primary concern had been to see if someone might have been injured. So I turned back to my garden. Within three minutes of the incident, another, newer car sped down the road and stopped beside the disabled vehicle. A grown man,and a young adolescent female hopped out, and examined the disabled car, rather than speaking with the teen driver.
Analysis:
Male teen is driving the family's hand-me-down sedan along a relatively quiet country road, while fiddling with his cell phone. Being predictably inattentive, he allows his vehicle to drift to the right edge of the road, and clip the low culvert of a driveway. This launches his car a foot or two into the air. It thumps back down on the shoulder of the road. Teen driver finally reacts, by overcompensating to the left, while stomping the brakes. The car veers to the left, and clips a second driveway culvert, then thumps to rest.
His first action, after emerging from the car, is to phone his father (Happy Father's Day, by the way), who apparently lives less than a mile away. Father and teen driver's younger sister jump into their newer car, and rush to the scene to assess the damage to the car.
An Intentional
Does one call this an accident, when the driver has intentionally chosen not to attend to the tasks involved in driving a car of which he is in command? An accident?
I'm happy that nobody was injured.
Bob
I walked out to the center of the road road. A quarter mile down, a moderately old import sedan had parked itself on the side of the road, facing the wrong direction, and straddling a shallow culvert that passed beneath a gravel driveway.
I don't see all that clearly in the distance, but from the body movements and affect, I clearly discerned a male, teenage driver emerge from the car, apparently uninjured. He clapped both hands on his head, looked up at the sky, then held a small device to his ear as he walked around the car. The driver did not appear ataxic (drunk). There did not appear to be a passenger in the car. The car's grill and front bumper seemed to be undamaged.
My primary concern had been to see if someone might have been injured. So I turned back to my garden. Within three minutes of the incident, another, newer car sped down the road and stopped beside the disabled vehicle. A grown man,and a young adolescent female hopped out, and examined the disabled car, rather than speaking with the teen driver.
Analysis:
Male teen is driving the family's hand-me-down sedan along a relatively quiet country road, while fiddling with his cell phone. Being predictably inattentive, he allows his vehicle to drift to the right edge of the road, and clip the low culvert of a driveway. This launches his car a foot or two into the air. It thumps back down on the shoulder of the road. Teen driver finally reacts, by overcompensating to the left, while stomping the brakes. The car veers to the left, and clips a second driveway culvert, then thumps to rest.
His first action, after emerging from the car, is to phone his father (Happy Father's Day, by the way), who apparently lives less than a mile away. Father and teen driver's younger sister jump into their newer car, and rush to the scene to assess the damage to the car.
An Intentional
Does one call this an accident, when the driver has intentionally chosen not to attend to the tasks involved in driving a car of which he is in command? An accident?
I'm happy that nobody was injured.
Bob
