Friday, 20 July, 2018
At the end of April I posted about our gorgeous tree being massacred.
Although I stubbornly insist that it will be years before it’s back to its spreading and shading self, the rebirth has been interesting so I’ve been documenting it with one photo a week since we noticed the first sprouting leaves.
The next drama on our street has been the traffic island. Someone collided with it quite spectactularly a couple of months back.
I will skip all the photos I’ve taken to document this particular journey but here’s the story.
Since that first crash there have been nine more. We were puzzled. Why after three years being here, were cars suddenly crashing into the island? We think we know why. It’s been a sunny summer and, if you’re a driver and perhaps going over the limit, the sun would hit your eye around the 8pm mark and blind you for a moment. Just enough for you not to see the island on time. Now, add to this the fact that the tree, that used to reach over to the island, would have created enough shade that you were still able to navigate. That shade no longer exists. This combination is the most likely.
So meanwhile, after the 8pm mark, cars have continued to crunch and crash into the island eventually flattening the two markers and creating increasingly jagged edges. So while the first car’s front was totalled, subsequent cars had their tires punctured or later shredded.
And we were seriously worried that cars exiting the junction street might be hit, or worse still a pedestrian oblivious to the danger would be standing on the island when a car crashed through.
It may not be over yet. The barricades mean no more ruined tires. However, last night – a few days after the barricades were put off – someone crashed into the blue barricade and it’s tilting. Will it survive? Anyone’s guess!
