Synchronicity
A long time ago, when I was living in Penzance, a friend used to pronounce synchronicity as 'synchronosity', as though it derived from the term 'synchronous'. Many people, possibly because of an unconcscious link with the term 'synergy', regard synchronicity as applying only to happy coincidences. Not so, it can cover unpleasant events as well. And, just like buses, synchronicity seems to come in clumps and clusters.
A couple of posts ago I related how a friend and I discussed the year-on-year increases in traffic levels that had lead to us each experiencing longer journey times to and from Berkshire. The next Monday after that post, my journey time between Wiltshire and Lincolnshire increased by 30 minutes. Road works had sprung up on two seperate locations on the A34, and at the M1/M18 junction. I sulked about it after I crawled into work 30 minutes late, and resigned myself to having to leave home 30 minutes earlier each Monday morning for the next three months.
Later that day, I was skimming through the local news on the BBC website, checking Wiltshire, Somerset and Dorset because I live at the confluence of those three counties, Lincolnshire because I currently spend more time up there than at home, and Berkshire, because I still keep in touch with a few friends from the times I lived and worked there. Under Berkshire, I saw an article about a cyclist found dead in the road with a wing mirror close by, presumed to be the victim of a hit and run. The place of the accident was where I had recently worked. I thought little more of it.
At the end of the week, sitting at home picking through the mail, the phone rang. it was my friend of the commuting conversation, with bad news. The cyclist had been someone who had sat next to me for two years. Police had arrested several people who had apparently been in the vehicle at the time of the accident,
This news came in a week when the Home Secretary had advised Judges to remember some Home Office guidelines suggesting that only the most dangerous convicted persons needed to be sent to jail. It comes at a time when more and more hit-and-run incidents seem to occur.
Motoring accidents are accepted as inevitable, unlike train accidents, which usually result in a public inquiry and the near-conviction of those at the top of companies judged to have been in a position of responsibility. No such inquiries seem to result from accidents between motor vehicles and pedestrians or cyclists, unless enough incidents occur to warrant placing a speed camera. By a cruel twist, the roads at each end of the fatal stretch in question have speed cameras, but not the road where the accident happened.
However, I do not think the speed limit or absence of a camera is really the issue in this case. What is repugnant to me is the action of driving away from an incident with no thought for the victim. A prompt phone call might have resulted in a life saved, rather than an attempt to keep a licence. But it seems some people in this country have different priorities. Are they going to be judged suitable to be sent to prison as 'a danger to the public', or will they be seen as only requiring a fine and suspension?
A couple of posts ago I related how a friend and I discussed the year-on-year increases in traffic levels that had lead to us each experiencing longer journey times to and from Berkshire. The next Monday after that post, my journey time between Wiltshire and Lincolnshire increased by 30 minutes. Road works had sprung up on two seperate locations on the A34, and at the M1/M18 junction. I sulked about it after I crawled into work 30 minutes late, and resigned myself to having to leave home 30 minutes earlier each Monday morning for the next three months.
Later that day, I was skimming through the local news on the BBC website, checking Wiltshire, Somerset and Dorset because I live at the confluence of those three counties, Lincolnshire because I currently spend more time up there than at home, and Berkshire, because I still keep in touch with a few friends from the times I lived and worked there. Under Berkshire, I saw an article about a cyclist found dead in the road with a wing mirror close by, presumed to be the victim of a hit and run. The place of the accident was where I had recently worked. I thought little more of it.
At the end of the week, sitting at home picking through the mail, the phone rang. it was my friend of the commuting conversation, with bad news. The cyclist had been someone who had sat next to me for two years. Police had arrested several people who had apparently been in the vehicle at the time of the accident,
This news came in a week when the Home Secretary had advised Judges to remember some Home Office guidelines suggesting that only the most dangerous convicted persons needed to be sent to jail. It comes at a time when more and more hit-and-run incidents seem to occur.
Motoring accidents are accepted as inevitable, unlike train accidents, which usually result in a public inquiry and the near-conviction of those at the top of companies judged to have been in a position of responsibility. No such inquiries seem to result from accidents between motor vehicles and pedestrians or cyclists, unless enough incidents occur to warrant placing a speed camera. By a cruel twist, the roads at each end of the fatal stretch in question have speed cameras, but not the road where the accident happened.
However, I do not think the speed limit or absence of a camera is really the issue in this case. What is repugnant to me is the action of driving away from an incident with no thought for the victim. A prompt phone call might have resulted in a life saved, rather than an attempt to keep a licence. But it seems some people in this country have different priorities. Are they going to be judged suitable to be sent to prison as 'a danger to the public', or will they be seen as only requiring a fine and suspension?
posted by Sopwith-Camel | 1:20 pm
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