What was I thinking? To expect to travel so far and not see an accident!!! How naive could I have been? Yep, the two serious crashes on the ring road are yet more testimony to a toxic mixture of inflated egos, aggression and a level of impulse control we usually associate with toddlers.
It's been one hell of a day. In the course of three and half hours this morning I saw five traffic accidents. Yes, five separate crashes involving cars, scooters, trucks and even an excavator. All of this on a clear, relatively warm day without a trace of rain, ice or fog . This is not to mention the two near accidents I saw last night, one of which involved a driver deliberately trying run down a pedestrian who dared to cross in front of him on a red light.
I tell you, driving behaviour here ranges from plain, old dumb to clinically psychotic.
As I have lessons all over the city I usually travel around Thessaloniki on a Vespa. It's next to impossible to park a car in many areas, and especially in the centre. On the other hand going by public transport is not really an options as it is often slow and unreliable. A journey that takes me 25 minutes by bike would need 1.5 to 2 hours by bus, so it's not feasible.
I found this video on YouTube that was taken in Greece, probably off a traffic camera in Athens. I had a similar collision last year when some idiot did an illegal upturn right in front of me and as a result I went flying over the hood of his car. luckily, I suffered little more than cuts and bruises, though the bike was a write - off. Still, unlike the guy in the video (who was even luckier) I always wear a helmet.
The worst thing about this is that when the driver gets out of the car, instead of asking about the victim or trying to get help she tries to defend her actions!! Even though she'd run a red light (according to the guy).
By the way, Greek law clearly states that wearing a helmet is mandatory. Now if only we can get the cops to figure that out it would be a start.
