At the end of Latching High Street there was a fire engine parked off-road pumping out water perhaps to prevent someone’s house turning into an indoor swimming pool, which is fair enough. I drove through about an inch of water and turned right heading towards Maldon whereupon I came upon police vehicles parked around a flood across the road and extending about fifty feet. That they were there I assumed was because there had been some sort of accident, but no, they were turning drivers around, not allowing them to drive through about six inches of water. I thought this ludicrous, but obeyed these officers of the law who were obviously lacking something better to do with their time.
Heading on another route into Maldon I drove through a similar flood, you know, low gear and high revs, just chug through – it’s not going to be a problem unless you’re an idiot. After the dental appointment I avoided the police road block and found myself in a slow moving queue into Latchingdon. What now? Well, it seemed the police or the fire service had blocked off one lane of the road to prevent people driving through about four inches of water.
I despair of this pathetic molly-coddling. Are the British public such wimps and inadequate they must be protected from puddles?
7 comments:
Ahh... so you didn't see the newsflash about the strange giant leech-like creatures found lurking around your parts - your parts meaning area where you live, not genitals...
You noticed any blue circles on your tyres?
Oh... and never mind answering blogs over at Gibson's place, get back to writing. I've finished Scorpion and am getting cold turkey...
get back to writing - sheesh, talk about the kettle calling the pot black :)
In defence of plod, for once, people these days are too bloody stupid to slow down for adverse weather conditions.
Fin a bid puddle in the country and you'll find all manner of idiots ploughing through it at 60 too busy fucking around with their/radio/ipod/lipstick/mobile/cocks to bother to look where they are going.
Car conks out because they've flooded the electrics - they'll blame the car for not being made properly, crash and it's the police/council's fault for not stopping them going too fast.
Seriously we need to let more people kill themselves through stupidity and put their deaths in the papers. People need to claw back some fucking common sense and responsibility for their own actions.
Plod should have let you drive through the flood, should you have fucked it up (or anyone else in the queue) the police and other drives should be entitled to kick the crap out of you. A perfect system, you are entitled to have a go at something but you have to face the music should you cock it up.
you should go to japan and see how they deal with a pot hole being filled.
theyre giving those 6 danger ready people with flashlights and flourescent hazmat jackets a living.
when they cant make it there is a plywood animatronic 'cop' with a flashlight standing over it.
Well, it does only take like 8 inches to float a car and water is always deeper than it looks. That's what they tell us at least.
Paul: It's not the electrics that go, there isn't enough voltage to jump gaps. It's getting water in the intake/exhaust
Good article Neal.
Quite simply, they don't believe that we should be allowed to make our own decisions anymore.
Personal responsibility went out the window with the arrival of the health & safety cult.
The problem then is that people don't gain experience in learning from their mistakes, so assume that if they haven't been told it is NOT OK by someone in authority, then it must be safe. When something happens to them as a result, they don't put it down to experience and learn from it as we used to, instead they blame someone else.
Hence an upsurge of blame culture law-suits which leads to ... tightening up of health & safety procedures. It's a classic downward spiralling vicious circle.
My brother told me that the fire brigade were still pumping out the two houses on the main high street in Latchingdon yesterday.
I usually just following in the wake of another vehicle when going through deep water.
Maybe the police should also guard all the Fords dotted around Britain as you can see at http://www.wetroads.co.uk/ there is obviously a lot of permanent flooded roads that the public need be aware of.
Mr Puddlecote nailed it. Appropriate name that...
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