Monday, April 26, 2010
Cramp in a cramped Mini, a tale of agonising pain and woe
It felt like my thigh muscle had suddenly and spasmodically become wrenched from my bone. Looking back on it now, I see there were three significant problems. First, I had cramp. Second, I'd never had it before and thought that something was seriously, perhaps fatally, wrong. Third, I was in the rear seat of a tiny little mini on a motorway with no immediate prospect of getting out, stretching my legs and enjoying some pain relief.
It may sound melodramatic, but it really was one of those formative and traumatic experiences that mark, nay scar, our childhood. To this day, if someone tells me they have or have had cramp, I cannot help but hyperempathise to what must seem an insane degree.
This is why I can almost (and I say almost) understand the actions of a South Yorkshire motorist who was recently prosecuted for driving with one of his legs hanging out the window after suddenly being afflicted with "agonising cramp".
Although the driver avoided a prison sentence for his reckless act, he was ordered to perform 200 hours of community service.
The prosecutor in the case explains what police saw, "He was driving along the third lane or fast lane at 70mph. He appeared to be sat very low in his seat as though he was reclining backwards," he said.
"The officers saw part of his right leg and foot sticking out of the driver's window. As he went along the brake lights of his vehicle came on.
"He clearly touched the controls with his left foot because his right foot was still through the driver's window."
"It is not the sort of activity which is conducive to road safety," said the judge. Nor is it, I imagine, the kind of act that is conducive to getting a cheap car insurance quote.
Image © waldo_swiegers, via Flickr under Creative Commons Licence
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posted by Fuse @ 3:21 AM 
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