It wasn’t mine

It wasn’t my accident.

If events require labelling then it was an incident.

The word accident (somewhat, or totally) absolves responsibility and a realistic acceptance and understanding of what actually happened – the error that was made and the reasons for it – and that don’t necessarily allow acceptance nor admittance of any error to then be better understood and learned from in the future.

Certainly in a case of serious misfortune that was survived and that happened because of someone’s inability to concentrate and look properly, not just glance – so as to counter the natural blind spot everyone has in their eyes/field of vision – at a junction they were required to wait and give way at but didn’t, especially given conditions and oncoming traffic having right-of-way.

So, it wasn’t my accident and ownership of someone else’s incompetence, inattention and impatience that led to the incident should not be given to me, the survivor and innocent party of it.

What a mad world we live in given a driver can still drive despite getting points on their driving licence and then eventually even having an option to have those points removed from their driving licence with acceptable ‘good driving’ . . . oh, but apparently, we need to keep the economy moving despite attention (and care and responsibility) being seemingly surplus to requirements . . . even when legally licensed to drive, effectively, a polluting box-on-wheels¹.

Wise words

It was in a book – that despite me starting with some enthusiasm, in March 2026, never got finished as I just couldn’t get with its narrative – that the quoted words below stood out to me, ironically on a quick flick through after realising I wasn’t going to finish it and I thought were well worth sharing at the end of this post, as fiction (despite the title being based around a real event) often speaks truth:

Few seem to grasp that accidents don’t happen by accident.

Emma Donoghue The Paris Express