Friday, December 16, 2011
More than your five-a-day
At a traffic junction in Coundon, Coventry this week something very strange occurred.
Motorists in the UK always have to be prepared for precipitation, but drivers in this area were witness to a very different sort of rain. Out from the sky fell – not water – but apples.
Yes. Apples.
One road user stated, “The apples fell out of nowhere. They were small and green and hit the bonnet hard. Everyone had to stop their cars suddenly.”
There have been two theories presented since the fruity downpour. One involves a plane losing its cargo, and the other involves a mini tornado sucking apples from an orchard somewhere and then letting them go over Coventry.
Well, you’ve heard the stories about raining frogs and fish – now you’ve heard of apple-rain.
We’d quite like it to rain money next. We’re carrying buckets around with us just in case.
Photo © Grey World via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: apples, Coventry, drivers, experienced motorist, fruit, junction, precipitation, rain, road user, traffic
Monday, December 5, 2011
A Marmity mess
Whether you hate Marmite or you love it – no one likes having to take a detour because there’s been a Marmite spill all over the road.
However, recently some poor motorists who had been travelling along the M1 had to take alternative routes when a lorry crashed and spilled sticky goop all over the highway.
Ok – it wasn’t actually Marmite – it was waste brewers yeast – but it was first reported to be Marmite and as a Marmite hater I personally can’t see the difference between the disgusting brown spread and waste yeast encrusted with tarmac anyway.
The motorway had to be closed in both directions between junctions 32 and 33, the lorry driver was taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries, and The Environment Agency was called to help clean up and check that waterways hadn’t been polluted.
What a mess! It proves how evil Marmite is once and for all!
Ok, yes, it wasn’t Marmite…
Photo © Jacob Rickard via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: detour, highway, junction, lorry, M1, Marmite, motorist, motorway, road, tarmac, yeast
Monday, October 24, 2011
Sat-nav blindness
Sat-navs can be really useful for people who haven’t taken a certain route before and feel more confident if they have some guidance.
The problems begin when motorists rely too heavily on their GPS system and begin following it blindly to the ends of the Earth. The truth is, voice on the machine may sound authoritative, whether it’s Yoda or the basic man or woman’s voice, but it is still a machine and doesn’t have a brain.
No offence meant to sat-navs, they’re a great piece of technology, but if they hasn’t been updated for a while they could take you down a road that’s blocked off, or across a junction that doesn’t exist anymore, or tell you that through the new shopping centre is the best course of action.
One lorry driver recently got his vehicle wedged between two buildings at the end of a narrow lane that his sat-nav had told him to go down.
A car probably would have gone through – but this man must have forgotten that the GPS doesn’t know what vehicle you’re in.
A landlord near the narrow lane stated, “It was a very stupid thing to do and the locals thought he was a bit of an idiot for doing it.”
He caused damage to the properties on either side and the lorry was finally freed in a six hour operation the next day.
Next time he might try to judge the situation for himself before blindly doing as the sat-nav tells him…as should we all.
Photo © Mavroudis Kostas via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: GPS, guidance, junction, lorry, motorist, narrow lane, road, route, sat-nav, technology, vehicle