Road Safety Week
Apparently it is road safety week, some hardy souls are out pamphleting – a complete waste of time.
We haven’t done very much the last few days but last night I got a serious adrenalin rush by just doing an everyday thing. I went out on the scooter. We had nearly run out of money and both ATM’s in the village were closed so we decided to go to Colva on the scooter to get some cash. Jesus it was the most harrowing thing I have done for a long time. I’m used to riding the scooter here during the day and night around the village but last night was something else. All the street lights were out but unfortunately all the crazy drivers were not. We really did take our lives into our own hands. Big T sat on the back with her eyes shut while I dodged hurtling buses, cars on the wrong side of the road and two wheelers riding three abreast all of whom either had their lights on full beam or worse still had not bothered to turn them on at all! There was a car reversing at a junction on to the main road so we had to go around him and blindly onto the main road, another car turned straight into me at a four way cossing. Indian drivers cannot drive and added to that, they have no patience or any notion of courtesy. It is an absolute nightmare on the roads. There are many reports in the local papers of fatalities on the roads in Goa and they very often conclude with the phrase ‘the police are investigating the incident’. There can never be successful outcome to who or what was to blame for a particular crash for two reasons. Firstly, the police are totally inept and secondly, the traffic is so unfathomably chaotic and unregulated. I’m afraid a few pamphlets will make no difference at all.
