Shards of green glass littered the roadway, sparkling in the sunlight like emeralds. Overturned orange crates lay scattered throughout the ruins, a few still protecting 1 or 2 intact bottles. The motorcart itself seemed to be unscathed. It was parked just off to the side, around the corner. The driver stood in the middle of the mess, hands on hips, assessing the personal cost of his miscalculation. A well dressed man in crisp African clothes gestured to a policeman as the two made their way across the intersection. Perhaps he was the other driver. It wasn't clear which vehicle was his.
I've passed several accidents in the last few weeks. They seem to come in waves like that. Twice my passing coincided with the arrival of the police. I've long been curious about the after incident process but have never actually seen it. In the first case, a policeman was drawing with chalk around the vehicles, large squares outlining their placement. Presumably, the cars could then be moved.
The tendency to leave cars- and even victims, as I saw one hit bicycle rider today- in the exact spot of the accident leads to such traffic congestion and delay. Not to mention it often seems dangerous to those involved as they often stand discussing the problem right there too. No cones, no one redirecting traffic, not even any palm fronds in the road (although someone had placed a cement brick next to the biker guy's bag of rice that had apparently flew from his basket. And to be fair, if it goes on long enough, eventually an on-looker will jump in and start trying to sort out the tangled traffic. Usually. )
We passed the bottle accident a second time on our way home, about 20 minutes later. He was in the middle of the street with a broom sweeping up the mess. I couldn't help but feel for him. No matter whose fault the accident, his life was taking a hard toll that day. Surely he'd be held responsible for the crates of beer that had been destroyed. Any insurance process would take far too long to be of any help to anyone.
Even as I was empathizing with him, there was something about his act of cleaning that struck a chord with me. African sensibility I could get behind, if, in fact, the accident was the result of his own negligence in observing traffic laws. And if he wasn't the culprit? He was definitely the younger of the two and the less wealthy. There's a certain African sensibility to that as well.
