It happened right in front of me as I was attempting to drive Sissy to see a friend in Ealing. There was an ambulance on the scene instantly (as it was already in the Commercial Road for some reason and it stopped to see if the rider was hurt)... and after about two minutes a police car appeared. After making sure that everything and everyone was ok, the van drove off and we were allowed to go on our way again. The whole incident took about ten minutes from start to finish... and they were the longest ten minutes of my life! At one point, the van driver pointed at me and I was sat there thinking to myself "what if I have to give a statement saying what I saw?" and "what if he's somehow going to try and blame me for the accident?!" I sat there desperately trying to order my thoughts in case I had to tell the police my eye witness account of the accident. It wouldn't have taken long... van pulled across my lane trying to do a u-turn, driver was looking the wrong way (left at traffic on the other side of the road, and not right to check the traffic on his own side), bike carried on, so did the van, van hit bike, rider ended up on the floor after the van clipped the left-hand back side of the bike. Ambulance and police then arrived. End.
We both sat there with our hands to our mouths, and I'm still a little shaky over it now... even though the rider of the motorcycle got up and walked his bike to the pavement. I think it was the shock of seeing him collide with the front of the van, that shook me up a little (plus I already had a stomach ache, which didn't help)... I've never seen anything like that before (in real life). Sissy and I were so shaken up that we turned around and came home and she went to Ealing on the Tube instead.
I was in the new car, too. (Which is brilliant, by the way. So nice to be able to get out and go where we want to again... I'd missed the freedom that having a car gives.)
I don't know if it's because I had a fairly restless night last night, or the comedown from seeing the accident (a little shock, maybe?) but I'm so very tired, and once or twice earlier this evening I swear that I dropped off for a few minutes in my chair at the kitchen table... you know that heavy tiredness in your eyes that you just cannot fight? That.
