That could have been...

There is a road, Carmody Road, that runs perpendicular to the end of our street. It leads to the university and also provides a handy route to the local Coles. There are always students using the footpath that runs beside the road, either on their way to or from uni, or to go shopping. There is a hill crest just before the turn-off into our street, with a bend in the road immediately past the place where it turns into our street. Last year a car came over the top of the hill too fast, as a good many of them do, lost control on the bend and crashed into a power pole and a concrete fence outside a block of units. It knocked over one of the concrete pillars and broke all the others.

We've always said it would happen again. The day before yesterday, Gam and I were walking home from Coles with our groceries when a car came hurtling over the top of the hill at great speed, swerving on to the wrong side of the road, away from the footpath we were walking on (walking home we face the traffic coming over the hill). This prompted another discussion over when we could expect another accident, and whether we could ever hope for something to be done about speeding drivers coming over that hill. The last time there was an accident it was a matter of sheer luck that there were no pedestrians on the footpath at the time. Had there been, they would probably have been killed. I said to Gam that it will take the death of at least one person before the council would ever contemplate something like speed bumps on that road; councils hate inconveniencing car drivers. That was two days ago.

This evening, about 6.30pm, Gam and I walked around the corner onto Carmody Road and saw flashing lights and a large group of people standing on the footpath outside the block of units where there was an accident last time. It was a fire engine, so we figured there must have been some kind of fire in the units. There was one person lying on the ground being attended to by firefighters. They were wrapped completely in a blanket. Another person being attended to was sitting down clutching her leg.

Two girls, foreign students who lived on our street, had been walking home from Coles when a car came speeding over the top of the hill. It lost control on the bend, swerving onto the footpath. It hit them both, leaving one girl with head injuries and the other with apparently mild injuries. Their groceries were scattered on the footpath. We saw the car, with the windshield cracked where it had struck the girls. It could have been a heck of a lot worse.

On our way back we saw that cops had arrived and closed the road. The two girls had been taken away in ambulances. A girl who lived in the block of units outside where the girls were struck said she heard two 'pops' followed by the screeching of tires. She said she had at first thought that someone had struck the wheelie bins. The girls are expected to be fine- one will most likely be released from hospital tomorrow, and the other hopefully in about a week or so. She also said the guy swore he had been doing 60km/hr. Convenient, that he happened to be doing exactly the speed limit.

We can't count on drivers to do the right thing and slow down. I'm going to write a letter to the council, and Gam and I are thinking about putting up a petition for all the student pedestrians who pass by that spot and don't fancy being struck on their way home by some pedal-happy dickhead in a speeding car to sign.

But I don't think we can count on council either. What happened last year should have been a warning that something needed to be done. Now they have blood. I'm still convinced it will take bodies.