Saturday 16 October 2010

Apparently nothing, nothing apparently.

To Kraków this morning for a political conference (more tomorrow). In the meantime, two photos to show that last Tueday's tragic road accident that left 18 dead has not taught anything to Poland's hell-bent drivers.

Similar circumstances. A straight stretch of single-carriageway road (between Radom and Kielce). Fog, not long after dawn. An ill-judged attempt to overtake. It looks like the driver of the Audi (below) suddenly realised he was not going to make it. The driver of the van had to swerve so violently that the front offside wheel came off (it was fifty metres further on down the road.)

It is a sad but tragic fact that this very day there are 180-200 Poles alive, eating, breathing, planning their lives, who won't be alive in two weeks' time because they will die in car crashes, culminating in the All Saints' Weekend when half of Poland will take to the roads to visit their families' graves. The roads will be busy, slippery with leaves, maybe icy; most cars will not have yet changed to winter tyres, the clocks will have gone back so it will be dark earlier. But still too many will be driving way too fast.

The national 'weekend without [road] victims' (Weekend bez ofiar, 6-8 August), widely promoted in the media, was a flop. 44 died over those three days.

What have we learnt?

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