Wall to Wall Sunshine

Wall to wall sunshine on St Swithen's Day. I mentioned the saint a few days ago and mentioned the bit of folk lore that suggested that if it rained on St Swithen's Day we would have rain for 40 days. The Met Office say it doesn't make any difference what happens to the weather today according to records going back 60 years and the saying doesn't say what will happen if it doesn't rain today, which it didn't. I'm looking forward to finding out, we could do with some settled weather for the rest of summer.

A couple of little incidents along the same stretch of road involving cyclists came to my attention yesterday and today. Given how far I drive in a year, about 28 000 miles, I actually see very few actual RTCs occurring and I didn't actually see these two happen. I just got there too late. The first was a motor cycle parked on the pavement with the owner, in full motorcycle gear talking to two ambulance crew. Their ambulance was parked in the bus stop just before Wheatridge Lane. At first, as I drove past I thought there may have been a collision between the ambulance and the bike. Any way I continued towards Paignton and South Devon College. On my way back, heading to where the incident had happened the road goes through a series of bends and the road goes up and down a few inclines, just the sort of road that might tempt some one on a motorbike to open the throttle just a bit more than one should. Especially as the last bend is just that bit sharper than the others and what is round that bend is a straight piece of road that is normally clear, no parked cars, no traffic queues. But there is also a high wall and lots of trees blocking the view ahead but what the hell, it always clear. As I went round this bend slowing gently, foot resting on the brake peddle I notice a single skid mark starting in the centre of the left side of the road and aimed right at the traffic island in the middle of the road. The bollard, one of those plastic ones that bend and crush if hit certainty look bent and crushed, just like it had been hit. My guess is a biker went round the last bend forgetting for a moment the most important rule in the Highway Code. Never driver so fast that you can not stop easily in the distance you know to be clear. Hitting a bollard isn't stopping easily. Only a guess, but then I am sitting at a computer and can guess, unlike the biker who was sitting on his bike and guessed and got it wrong.

PS Neither he nor his bike look badly damaged.

Second incident I also just missed seeing happened a 100 yards down the road from the above. I pulled into the bus lay by at Livermead Cliff. There was nothing of note in the road ahead, just slow moving traffic heading for Torquay. Two passengers got off and I watched them. Once they were clear of the door I closed it and checked the mirror, the road was clear and I looked ahead and moved of. There on the right hand side of the road was a car half way into a hotel car park with a cyclist lying on the pavement with his bike on top of him. The car must ( again a guess) have been in the slow moving traffic and turned into the car park without noticing the cyclist attempting to pass on the nearside, in a cycle lane I might note. The incident must have happened whilst I was watching my passengers disembark. As I drove past the incident the cyclist was being helped to his feet by the car driver so again no one was seriously hurt, unless of course the cyclist kicked seven shades of brown stuff out of the car driver as I vanished into the distance.