A world of indifferences

[Steve Jones]

Summer 2012, late on a Saturday afternoon. Malcolm and I are in my Trials Chummy on the B6105 to the East of Clocaenog Forest, North Wales. The road is pretty straight but undulating. We’re about to turn right. I’ve moved over to the middle of the road, arm out signalling. Check mirror for the last time, take a quick look over my right shoulder and, as it’s clear, start to turn. Just as the car starts to go to the right a motorbike screams past on our offside. He misses us by inches, wobbles all over the road as he brakes to a standstill, looks back at us in anger and then drives off. Fractions of a second later and he’d have T boned the Chummy and it’s probable that the three of us wouldn’t have survived. What I can say is that he certainly wasn’t in view when I checked my mirror for the last time or looked over my shoulder. You never can be sure but his speed must have been 90/100mph. The Chummy could have had a hundred indicators or, indeed, it could have been a 40 tonne artic. The same situation would have occurred because the lunatic biker came over a blind brow at a ridiculous speed with no thought as to what might have been on the other side. We later learned that this is common occurrence on this road that sometimes has much worse consequences.