Thursday, March 30, 2006

Hit

Yesterday, as I was exiting the subway at Prince Street, I noticed a crowd at the intersection right in front of me. There was someone screaming and horns beeping. Usually I don't have time to stop and look at everything going on in the street but I had some time to kill. I wandered over to the crowd and took a peak.

I saw a black Mercedes in the middle of the street with an older man in the drivers seat. Another man was standing at the window screaming at the driver. I couldn't understand what they were saying. Right on the ground in front of the car was a bicycle splayed out. The man had obviously been knocked off his bike by the car but not hurt enough to be still on the ground. He was yelling and not letting the man drive away by having his bike right in front of the front wheels.

The crowd had their opinions of whose fault it was ranging from the driver to the cyclist to the street for being narrow. I surveyed the scene and wondered how this would end. The man was clearly blocking traffic and the cyclist wanted the man to do something because he had been hit by his car. I turned around for one second and when I looked back the car was gone as well as the bike. In the distance, I could hear the sound of sirens. The police showed up as well as a fire truck. I was not sure why it was needed but liked that the city felt the need to send all emergency vehicles to the scene. There was nothing for them to do but talk to the witnesses. They did this quickly and left to go to the next NYC issue.

It's always an adventure. Thats what I love about my city! :)

2 comments:

Sasha said...

Those traffic accidents always bug me, there's always so much chaos going on, and it's so hard to tell if anyone was at fault.

Even makes me wonder why people can't be like "wow, I'm lucky to be alive"

But then again, it *is* NYC..

Anonymous said...

Thats why there is no fault insurance !!