Day 1.026: Much ado about...

...not very much. This is the aftermath of a road accident. The white car ran into the back of the red SUV and smashed itself up quite badly. The SUV was apparently unscathed.

Let me take you through what happened next (approximate timings in minutes/seconds):

00:30 - driver gets out of white car and goes to talk to other driver.
01:00 - both drivers seen standing between the two cars (in lane 2 of a four lane approach to the junction)
03:00 - one driver seen with a cell phone
07:00 - one of my colleagues calls the police to be told they're on their way
10:00 - police car arrives to find both drivers and both vehicles still in the middle of the road
10:10 - fire truck arrives
10:20 - second police car arrives
11:00 - police put a flare burning in the lane behind the accident (cool!)
12:00 - driver of white car put in a neck-brace (still standing in road)
13:00 - driver of white car lies down on a back-board in the middle of the road and is covered with a blanket.
13:10 - second fire truck arrives

At this stage - if I had arrived and seen a person lying in the road covered in a blanket with multiple emergency services attending - I would have guessed this was a fatal crash - not a shunt.

13:30 - second fire truck leaves
20:00 - ambulance arrives
25:00 - ambulance leaves with driver of white car
30:00 - tow-truck arrives to tow the white car and (inexplicably) the SUV too.
35:00 - fire truck and one police car leaves
40:00 - tow truck driver finishes by sweeping the road and leaves as does other police car.

All that fuss and disruption over a shunt in which everyone got out of their cars to have a calm conversation afterwards??

This is a strange place at times.