Slippery Roads
Photo from KNews
The other day, when I was walking back to the office from a meeting and, as I came up to the crossroads the traffic lights changed against me, so I stopped and stood at the kerbside waiting for them change back in my favour. I wasn’t too happy about as the wind was howling around me and it was bitterly cold … and I was only twenty or so meters from my warm comfort of my office.
It was tempting to try and beat the traffic before the lights changed, but I resisted it; it is wise not to take risks … and although I might have been tempted in the summertime, the ice that covered the road was uneven and slippery.
This winter, so far(!), I have avoided the ignomy of slipping on the ice, loosing my footing and falling over. It can be quite painful as being a shock to the system, but falling under the wheels of a vehicle driven by a driver eager to get under way once more having stood frustratingly still and watching everyone on the cross street speed by, was not a pleasant prospect.
As it happens, this thought was impressed in my mind as the driver of a vehicle not three meters from me, revved up his engine … just to stand still … the wheels span and span, polishing the already smooth ice into a new level of Ra - the most common measure of roughness used by engineers. The motor was turning over … the wheels were spinning … but the vehicle just stood in one place. I’m not sure what the driver did – I doubt if he knows – but the vehicle suddenly leapt forward … and skidded off towards the left – right towards me. I stepped back and the young man behind the wheel managed managed to reassert control over his wayward machine, corrected his course and went on his way.
Seriously, the streets of Bishkek have enough handicaps without adding having to cope with ice. There are uneven surfaces, missing manhole covers, trees growing in the middle of the path, paucity of street lighting at night, the risk of tripping over someone’s legs as they sit - or lie – at the side of the road … and so on, and so on.
The snow and ice just emphasize the difficulties A few years ago I was walking back to the office from another meeting and had to cross the road. There was a gap in the traffic and so I thought I would take advantage and stepped off the main pavement towards the kerb across, what I thought was, a grass verge. I had forgotten that, as well as the grass verge there was also an aryk – a little irrigation channel that is used to bring water through the city centre in the heat of summer. At this time of year, it was empty of water – but it was full of snow … so much snow, in fact, that it was totally indistinguishable. As I stepped out onto what I thought was the sold earth of a grass verge, my leg descended through soft snow. It is a good job it was an aryk and not a manhole, because the aryk was not as deep and had a definite bottom which was about the length of my leg. I was completely taken aback and after brief “what the …?” moment, I recovered myself and burst into laughter. The people on the side walk looked at me askance and, just like the Levite and the Pharisee, did a Dionne Warwick and “walked on by”.
At least it was soft snow and, apart from the shock and the damage done to my self esteem, I suffered no damage or injury. On other occasions, especially when I have been in a hurry, I have suddenly found my feet slipping away from under me on the slippery ice and found myself on my back with bruising and aches that lasted for several days.
I remember, back in the 1980′s, we had experienced several winters without any snow. It seems hard to imaging that now … but we did go through a particularly mild period. I remember how, when snow did finally appear, there was carnage, (no pun intended : car – nage), on the streets as cars slithered, this way and that, into other cars – moving or stationary – trees and lampposts. When we talking about it over a cup of coffee in the staffroom, someone pointed out to me that there was a whole “generation” of new drivers who had never experienced snow and icy conditions … and it was not surprising that they didn’t know how to handle the situation they were meeting. It’s not something that is taught and tested.
Incidentally, They don’t test night driving either, and I can imaging that many new drivers also find this a bit of an ordeal. I remember that I found it difficult – and even more so when I came to Kyrgyzstan where the street lighting is more noticeable by its absence than its presence.
I saw a report yesterday, where a spokesman from the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that in the last two years the number of accidents caused by inexperienced drivers, (that is, with less than one year’s experience), has increased by 90.9% – from 199 to 380. He went on to point out that this year has seen an almost 18% increase in the number of road traffic accidents involving children.
According to the head of the Traffic Police, Kyrgyzstan has also seen an increase in the number of accidents caused by drivers who are intoxicated – and apparently the biggest growth of accidents involving drunk drivers found in Naryn – so I will be especially careful the next time I go there.
In addition, there has been an increase in the number of “serious” accidents with “severe consequences”.
I’m not sure that I follow the logic, but he went on to say that one of the underlying causes of these increases was the transfer of the responsibility for registering vehicle and drivers’ licenses from the Traffic Police to the State Registration Service. Personally, I suspect it has more to do with the increased number of vehicles on the road, (apparently there are now 200,000 vehicles registered in the country – with a population of just over 5 million), the attitudes of the drivers and the lack of awareness of how to handle difficult and unusual circumstances. I just don’t see how changing the responsible agency for completing a clerical procedure has any effect.
Bishkek