@margo,
Hmmmm.....accidentally left the door to balcony open all night.
Woke at 6.00 am......no kittens. I assume they had been out there since the first touch of rosy fingered dawn. Both present and accounted for.
Anyhow.... The accident.
I was driving home friday night, peacefully minding my own business....when in front of me appeared a THING.
Normally I'm pretty good at noticing THINGS well in advance, but I only had a split second to think about this one, began to brake, unsure if I could actually do so in time, thought of the inevitable chain collision I was going to bear the brunt of, and, hoping it was a softish thing, (but aware belatedly from the looks of pedestrians who seemed to know what it was that I wasn't likely to be that luck) I drove over it.
Well...the horror! Sounds emanated from beneath my car as of a gigantic metal claw tearing its innards out. Surprised that the car still ran, I pulled off into a side lane and went back.
The guys who had been desperately trying to get it off the road told me that a bus on the other side of the road had hit the concrete median strip and the thing had torn off and landed on my side of the road. I assumed my car was ruined and, having no writing implements, dodged traffic to stand on median strip by said bus which was still sitting there, and knocked on window of drivers side, saying I would like to exchange names and numbers. I assumed he would open the door on the other side for me and we could do this civilly.
Instead he ignored me, while speaking into a phone. I was shocked by this, as I was by the fact that he made no move to get out and remove the thing his bus had left on the road. I found out later he'd sat there trapped in traffic for at least ten minutes, while several cars had hit the thing, while onlookers finally got the thing off the road.
I got angry and my requests became demands, while he sat there and ignored me. I discovered later he had done the same to at least one other driver.
He then drove off when the lights changed, leaving me balancinging precariously on a median strip narrower than the length of my shoe while six lanes of rush hour traffic roared past.
I was NOT amused.
I found that the guys who got the thing.....which turned out to be an O Bahn wheel (we have a kind of train track for buses that is used for a very long northern route, where they can travel very fast. It's concrete, and they can drop a set of wheels that slots into guides on this track....the thing was one of these wheels, with a a couple of feet at least of heavy metal attachment) had kindly taken all the bus details for me, so I was able to report to the Transit authority, my insurance and the police.
I was a bit shaken and VERY angry....angry not because of hitting something....accidents happen....but because of the attitude and negligence of the bus driver.
It's a weird accident because nobody seems entirely sure of whether the driver committed an offense or not. Two of the police I spoke to thought he had....that he had an obligation to try to remove the dangerous debris and exchange details with those who hit it, and one who thought he did not.
As far as I can see my car is ok....but I want it examined properly.
And I want the driver given a boot up the bum.
He was a Sikh.....I felt like grabbing his turban as he drove away. But that would be assault!
