Thanks to Patrick, Mathieu, Emile, and Destination High Tech today for making contributions. You are all really good people. The weather in my small town was absolutely amazing today. I really needed to get out and get some fresh air. So I decided that I would take the bus to the park and take a long walk and see some green space, as the homeless shelter is right in the middle of the dense city of 110 thousand people, it’s like a concrete jungle.
I wait for the bus. The temperature is almost 60F. Very odd to have a temperature so high this time of year. It’s usually around 15f. I get on the bus and move down the isle towards the back. Almost having to jump over a lady in a wheelchair who was partially blocking the isle. The bus takes off and about 20 minutes into the trip all hell breaks loose.
Some idiot in a truck pulls in front of the bus which was traveling at about 45mph causing the bus driver to slam on the breaks. It’s at this point the woman in the wheelchair goes flying towards the front of the bus. Tipping over in the process. She slams head first into the front of the bus, and her wheelchair (now on top of her) continues through the front windshield of the bus.
This lady was obviously hurt so it wasn’t more than a split second and people where on their cellphones calling for the paramedics and police. There was nothing I could do because I was sitting in the last seat, and by now the isle was full of people trying to assist her. So the ambulance shows up and quickly whisks her away while the police attempt to find out what happened. They say that they need to interview everyone on the bus individually and in order of their seating from front to back, so I knew I was going to there for a while.
After about an hour the bus driver announces that another bus will be arriving to take us back to the bus terminal. It’s at this point I realized I wasn’t going to get to the park today after all. Once we arrived at the bus terminal a swarm of bus company employees enter the bus and announce that we all need to be interviewed again by the bus company. It’s at this point I am wondering if I’m going to get back to the homeless shelter before dark.
I told the bus company exactly what I told the police. I feel really bad for the injured woman, but she neglected to lock her wheels, and attach the restraining strap that our local buses have to avoid this exact situation. The instructions are clearly visible and written in several languages. I was asked what I thought could have been done to avoid this accident? I said the only thing that could have been done is that the driver maybe could have checked to make sure she was locked-in correctly. I then walked from the main bus terminal to the homeless shelter which was about a mile away. I just got here. a little while ago. Answered some emails, and now I’m going to try to salvage what is left of the day by writing some Pligg code.
Before I go, I wanted to extend my gratitude to the French community. I have noticed that many of my contributions are coming from France. Merci grand peuple de France.
If contributions keep up I may be able to go home soon!!! If you would like to contribute you can do so from either here or here. You would be helping me out more than you know.
Tune in tomorrow
~ ChuckRoast