OMG! Accident.

[bunn]

Mollydog just got hit by a motorbike.

She is OK, but she has a small puncture wound on her bum and is a bit bruised. She was a bit freaked out, but is now fast asleep. (I am a quaking wreck). She was on the lead of course, but it is a narrowish road with no pavement, and so far as I can remember through the shock, she sort of jumped sideways when she heard it come zooming up behind us and it hit her on the bum.

The guy on the bike sort of paused a little way up the road, but I'm afraid I lost it and yelled at him 'what the fuck were you doing' and he rode off again.

We were only on that road at all because I'd just managed to run over a rock that took out both of my tyres on one side. I was only taking her out for a quick walk, so I had no phone, no RAC card with me. But we weren't very far from home so I decided to walk back. Bad mistake.

I am in debt to a lovely lady who saw the accident and took me in, gave Mollydog a treat while she fraternised with her lurcher (and quickly forgot the whole thing, I really hope!) and me a cup of hot tea, then ran me home in her car. It was the best luck that Mary had a lurcher, because that was really interesting for her and they had a good time sniffing round each other.

When Molly tried to have a poo it hurt her and she screamed :-( so I think she must have quite a bruise.

I thought I was fine till we got home and I'd rung the RAC, then I burst into tears and couldn't stop for ages, but I am OK now. Though the RAC aren't helping - apparently the local garage that was supposed to be picking up the car got 2 calls to the same area at the same time, and managed to lose mine!

They now say they will come and get the car from where it is tomorrow and take it to a tyre place. I am just glad I did get home - if I'd had my phone with me I'd have called from the car and waited - and I'd be seriously stressed by now!

One thing that makes it worse is that both the RAC and the local garage, on hearing the car was a Subaru Impreza, automatically assumed that I was speeding. And I really, really wasn't: it's a narrow winding road, I had the dog in the boot, I was in no hurry : I was doing about 35 and it's a 40 limit. Polo is away as well, just to make things worse, and (to complete the jeremiad) I have just had to buy a new boiler, as ours is failing, so I could really do without having to pay for 2 new tyres as well.

Bummer.

I really hope it is true about bad luck in threes, cos I've had mine now.

Comments

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I always wonder just how accurate "eye witness" accounts of crimes really are. I was attacked once in Oxford (someone else appeared and scared the chap away before anything bad happened) and my mind immediately went into a strange state of confused reality. I didn't have a clue afterwards if the person was white, or black, wearing red, pink or purple... And I do sometimes wonder how many victims and witnesses really do remember such things accurately, or if their mind constructs it (perhaps falsely) after the event.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you are right. I can't think (in retrospect) that the bike can have been doing much more than 30ish, given that there were no major injuries and the rider stayed on top of it, but Mary was convinced he was speeding (40+ on that road) It may well be that my memory of turning and finding the bike almost on top of us is equally flawed.

[na-lon.livejournal.com]

Eyewitness testimony is notoriously bad. There have been dozens of studies from teh seventies onwards showing how much of eyewitness testimony is vulnerable to questioning and interview techniques. There is, in fact, a fair amount of evidence that essentially all of our memory is constructed every time we recall something. When something happens, we process this in a ways that makes it make sense to us. Then, we we try to recall, we go backwards from the way we have made sense of things to fill in the details of what we have experienced. [/psychologist mode]

If you are interested, I can tell you lots more about this. It's kind of my field.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I am interested in the topic. I read a short but intriguing chapter once, in a more general book about something else, and I keep meaning to read more, but never quite got round to it... or really known where to start. Any good books for the layman that you can recommend?

(Sorry, Bunn, for straying off topic here. I hope Molly is still improving!)