Wheels
Brixton is slightly chaotic at the moment. Actually, let me rephrase that, Brixton is slightly more chaotic than usual at the moment and it’s all down to the road improvement works that are going on. As a direct knock on effect, it means that all the bus stops and pavements are in various states of disarray and when I need to travel between sites to get to my afternoon job, I generally feel quite lucky if my bus turns up quickly at the temporary stop and stays long enough for me to get on it without getting knocked off the bus by the closing doors. I felt quite lucky when I managed to hop on a number 59 today just as I turned up at the stop and luckier still when I found that the top deck was nice and quiet.
It takes a bit more time to get through the main section of Brixton Rd because of all the road works going on but I was surprised that the bus was nipping through the traffic pretty handily today. We were just at the crossing in front of the underground station I was idly texting a mate and staring out of the window when I heard a pretty loud crash, the distinctive sound of metal scraping on concrete and a few shouts of “oh no!” from pedestrians on the pavement. It felt like it went on forever, but in reality it must have been only five seconds. At this point I wasn’t really sure what to think, and neither did the other passengers. Did the engine just go “pop”? Did we bash into one of the wheelbarrows that the workmen were using? It’s strange how my mind thinks of the most mundane things at the most remarkable times.
And this is where it all got a bit weird.
I looked out of the right hand side of the bus and I could see people running in different directions.
Then people started screaming outside the bus.
And then a couple of people inside the bus started yelling.
“Oh shit,” I said.
This is when time felt like it sped up again. Everyone started getting off the bus and people kept saying we’d hit someone. The woman behind me kept crying and I kept turning around to tell her to calm down because it’d be ok. I don’t know why I said that because it clearly wasn’t true.
As I got off the bus I looked left and I could see a couple of wheels and a lump stuck under the front of the bus. I thought it was a bike of some sort so I looked further up the road for the rider, but there was nobody to be seen. Not good.
And that’s when someone nearby said it, “the bus hit a woman in a wheelchair.”
Oh.
It’s a cliché, I know, but I really hope she’ll make it. The sound of the impact was loud enough to bring a woman living nearby out of her house, so it was fairly severe. There was no sign of blood but she still wasn’t moving at all when I left to get on the tube instead of the bus. It’s going to be weird going past that spot every day.
It takes a bit more time to get through the main section of Brixton Rd because of all the road works going on but I was surprised that the bus was nipping through the traffic pretty handily today. We were just at the crossing in front of the underground station I was idly texting a mate and staring out of the window when I heard a pretty loud crash, the distinctive sound of metal scraping on concrete and a few shouts of “oh no!” from pedestrians on the pavement. It felt like it went on forever, but in reality it must have been only five seconds. At this point I wasn’t really sure what to think, and neither did the other passengers. Did the engine just go “pop”? Did we bash into one of the wheelbarrows that the workmen were using? It’s strange how my mind thinks of the most mundane things at the most remarkable times.
And this is where it all got a bit weird.
I looked out of the right hand side of the bus and I could see people running in different directions.
Then people started screaming outside the bus.
And then a couple of people inside the bus started yelling.
“Oh shit,” I said.
This is when time felt like it sped up again. Everyone started getting off the bus and people kept saying we’d hit someone. The woman behind me kept crying and I kept turning around to tell her to calm down because it’d be ok. I don’t know why I said that because it clearly wasn’t true.
As I got off the bus I looked left and I could see a couple of wheels and a lump stuck under the front of the bus. I thought it was a bike of some sort so I looked further up the road for the rider, but there was nobody to be seen. Not good.
And that’s when someone nearby said it, “the bus hit a woman in a wheelchair.”
Oh.
It’s a cliché, I know, but I really hope she’ll make it. The sound of the impact was loud enough to bring a woman living nearby out of her house, so it was fairly severe. There was no sign of blood but she still wasn’t moving at all when I left to get on the tube instead of the bus. It’s going to be weird going past that spot every day.
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