Black Ice...humbled a Manitoba Driver
I am just waiting for the insurance adjustor to call. They are appraising the car to see if it’s a write-off or repairable. You see, I rolled the car last week. BOO-UMS.
Black ice, they say (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_ice). I narrowly (so close I entertained some form of spiritual influence) missed the Jeep that had spun and hit the ditch moments earlier. She was oblivious to my car tracking the ruts of a vehicle that had narrowly missed the ditch seconds before us, until the avalanche of snow from my grounded car, sho
wered her Jeep. It was her voice calling as I escaped out the window, saying, “Are you OK?" No serious injuries to report albeit, the attending police deemed it prudent to summons an ambulance to “look me over”. Once electronically examined (my-oh-my they have hi-tech equipment) and summarily treated to the readouts and tacky removals of the sticky electrodes, and biting swabs on an overlooked cut or two, I was given a clean bill of health (reserving my right to report any post accident ailments…. *did I mentioned I was a retired Union Rep, LOL*) and released to observe my car being righted and hauled away.
The only casualty was my ego. You see I have long harboured the arrogance of pride and prejudice for maintaining there was no Ontario storm that could impede a Manitoba born driver. Apparently the incident was heralded in the local news. Let me assure you, I have no desire to be a poster boy for hazardous road conditions.
The following day we picked up a rental, while the insurance decided the fate of our car, and there were two more sets of tire tracks showing the trails of two more unlucky motorists suffering the perils of black ice, and, a SUV load of occupants scrambling from the windows of their snowbound vehicle after narrowly barrelling past a pole while grounding to an inertial stop in the snow-filled ditch, AT THE SAME MILEPOINT, ON COUNTY ROAD #20 about a mile east of the Arner Stop coffee shop (*circa urban myth* a few days later I anonomously overhear the AS proprietor telling customers a story of a rollover miraculously missing the Jeep lady, while I was grabbing a coffee and a paper).
WTF, I thought, would a cautionary sign a mile back, be too much to expect from the public works, if not, some sand and salt on the treacherous stretch of road. By my count, I had witnessed or recognized the ditching of 6 vehicles in the short time I had been on the road over two days. It behoves me how a person could reveal the actual reportable incidents for the two days and present a proposal to the County to prevent any such hazards in the future. The destiny between a trifling and a fatality was implausible, and considering the frequency, dam well miraculous (dare I say, a spiritual influence seems inescapable). I guess that seems superfluous and trivial in this day and age of economic and warring malfeasance.
There’s the phone. Stay tuned and I'll be in touch.
Black ice, they say (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_ice). I narrowly (so close I entertained some form of spiritual influence) missed the Jeep that had spun and hit the ditch moments earlier. She was oblivious to my car tracking the ruts of a vehicle that had narrowly missed the ditch seconds before us, until the avalanche of snow from my grounded car, sho
wered her Jeep. It was her voice calling as I escaped out the window, saying, “Are you OK?" No serious injuries to report albeit, the attending police deemed it prudent to summons an ambulance to “look me over”. Once electronically examined (my-oh-my they have hi-tech equipment) and summarily treated to the readouts and tacky removals of the sticky electrodes, and biting swabs on an overlooked cut or two, I was given a clean bill of health (reserving my right to report any post accident ailments…. *did I mentioned I was a retired Union Rep, LOL*) and released to observe my car being righted and hauled away.The only casualty was my ego. You see I have long harboured the arrogance of pride and prejudice for maintaining there was no Ontario storm that could impede a Manitoba born driver. Apparently the incident was heralded in the local news. Let me assure you, I have no desire to be a poster boy for hazardous road conditions.
The following day we picked up a rental, while the insurance decided the fate of our car, and there were two more sets of tire tracks showing the trails of two more unlucky motorists suffering the perils of black ice, and, a SUV load of occupants scrambling from the windows of their snowbound vehicle after narrowly barrelling past a pole while grounding to an inertial stop in the snow-filled ditch, AT THE SAME MILEPOINT, ON COUNTY ROAD #20 about a mile east of the Arner Stop coffee shop (*circa urban myth* a few days later I anonomously overhear the AS proprietor telling customers a story of a rollover miraculously missing the Jeep lady, while I was grabbing a coffee and a paper).
WTF, I thought, would a cautionary sign a mile back, be too much to expect from the public works, if not, some sand and salt on the treacherous stretch of road. By my count, I had witnessed or recognized the ditching of 6 vehicles in the short time I had been on the road over two days. It behoves me how a person could reveal the actual reportable incidents for the two days and present a proposal to the County to prevent any such hazards in the future. The destiny between a trifling and a fatality was implausible, and considering the frequency, dam well miraculous (dare I say, a spiritual influence seems inescapable). I guess that seems superfluous and trivial in this day and age of economic and warring malfeasance.
There’s the phone. Stay tuned and I'll be in touch.
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