| When
you spend all day every day on the road accidents
become a fact of life. Usually they are other
people's accidents and only cause delay. Sometimes
we would be the first on the scene and would
have to take charge until the emergency services
arrived. This included directing traffic,
something I did on a number of occasions. |
 |
| Inevitably
I suppose, we had accidents of our own. Two
of these happened just a fortnight apart on
the old A33, then the main road north from
Southampton. The first was on Boxing Day on
the way back from Southampton with the 17:00
number 47. We had an almost full bus as there
had been a football match at the Dell. Since
there was no rush I was still taking fares
as we travelled from Chilworth roundabout
down the hill towards Chandlers Ford. I felt
something hit the offside of the bus and made
my way downstairs as the driver slowed and
stopped. |
|
| I
got off and started walking back the way we
had come. As my eyes became accustomed to
the darkness I found a Ford Cortina in the
middle of the road, its offside badly damaged
but no sign of any occupants.Realising that
there must be another vehicle involved. I
walked further up the road to find a BMC 1100
or 1300 with severe front end damage but again
no people. Suddenly a police car arrived on
the scene. A woman following us had remembered
seeing it parked at the roundabout, picked
up the children from the Cortina and gone
back for help. |
|
| We
found the two drivers and the wheel from the
BMC which was what had hit the side of the
bus, but nobody could explain how the accident
had happened. |
|
| Two
weeks later it had started to rain early one
morning and then the temperature had dropped
and it had become very foggy. On the return
journey from Southampton we joined a queue
of vehicles at almost the same spot. We had
been stationary for about twenty minutes with
other vehicles behind us when we were hit
from behind by a Ford Anglia. The car had
punched a hole under the stairs of the bus
and was completely wrecked. |
|
| It
appeared the driver had decided to get past
all the traffic, found the road blocked and
braked causing him to lose control on the
ice. The police and an ambulance arrived from
the opposite direction. They were picking
up injured people from accidents stretching
from Chandlers Ford to Chilworth and there
were more accidents extending a mile each
way along the A27. |
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