A major feature of my trip to Italy has to be the traffic and the complete lack of concern for traffic laws and personal safety. I only saw the one accident though...
The scooter and motorbikes are a law unto themselves in the towns of Italy. They buzz round you and overtake on blind bends and hassle you and toot their puny horns. It doesn't matter a bit except when they crash into you and it can be great fun pretending not to see them doing rediculous movements then swinging the car in to their way and watching them panic.
We were going down a quiet, dusty, straight road on a hot afternoon. In front of me was a guy on an old scooter and he had what looked like fishing rods strapped across his back and buckets and baskets attached to him. Behind me was a lorry who seemed to be eager to get passed. The scooter was going slowly so I just backed off rather than try and perform an anxious overtaking maneouvre. We were commenting on the state of the guy and wondering what he had in his bags when I saw a bottle of water fall off and roll behind him. I slowed a little and thought that would be the end of the matter but he had other plans. He turned round to see what had happened and then the bike jack-knifed throwing him off it.
I pulled over about 40 yards behind him but the lorry went straight passed and pulled up blocking the road. I thought he wsa going to try and drive past the accident at first. The scooter driver's helmet had come off - they don't all wear them and in anycase it was an open face version which he had obviously not done up - madness. He had a gash on his chin and arm, blood all over his shirt as was limping. We got his bike to the side and he was in shock and pain. The lorry driver motioned to ask me for my "carte" by which I think he meant credentials - licence etc. but I ignored him as I wasn't going to get involved any deeper. The rider phoned for help then eased his trouse leg up and you could see the broken bone pressing against the skin. Lovely. Don't try this at home.
Amazingly that was the only accident we saw although I did smash my door mirror and damage the rear wheel arch slightly. The cover flew off the mirror but it just clipped back on and I polished out the mark so it looked like a typical door mirror that had gone through a few width restrictions. They don't have width restrictions in Italy do they? Or anywhere else apart from the UK? I cleaned up the wheel arch. Unfortunately all of Naples was closed for the second week (apparently) due to it being too hot or they just don't care. I couldn't get a replacement mirror.
When I returned the car I expectec complications but the guy charged me 15 euros for the mirror, then subtracted 15 euros from the bill for fuel as a favour and I didn't tell him about the wheel arch. On the diagram of the car there was a cross by the same wheel arch I had damaged (and none of the others) so I think I didn't cause the dent but did cause a small scraping. What a result! Of course I will watch my credit card statement closely...
Posted by grahame at August 21, 2003 07:13 AM