Post by wendyihts on Dec 31, 2006 13:11:31 GMT 1
I took Lutine out on the lane for a walk as she had some swelling in her hind limbs (she's prone to lymphangitis). The visibility was really good - you could see up our little lane for about 300m. Yet some pillock still managed to come round a corner (a left hand turn, which in France is a completely open turn with good visibility, not a blind turn) and ran right into us.
I saw this idiot coming up the lane at a good pelt in his lovely shiny black Alfa Romeo sports car. He started climbing the hill - I thought 'he's not slowing down', he came round the corner, I turned to signal to tell him to SLOW DOWN, thought 'he's going to hit us' and - it all happened in a split second - I dived out of the way of the car, heard a sickening BLAM behind me as he hit Lutine and then she shot past me, jumped the ditch and stood on the other side, snorting.
I'd honestly thought, when I heard him hit her, that I was going to turn round to see my horse in pieces on the road. Initially all I could see was that she'd got some skin lacerations on her back leg but she seemed to be bearing weight on it. She then stood on the verge snatching anxiously at grass.
And then the guy's behaviour was another thing. He WOUND HIS WINDOW DOWN and said 'is the horse OK then?' I screamed at him to GET OUT OF THE CAR. He got out and went to have a look at the damage to his bonnet where my poor horse had sat on it when he hit her. Then he came to me and said 'look, I have to go because I am a Doctor and I've had an urgent call out. The horse looks OK, doesn't it?' I almost couldn't speak, I couldn't remember my French properly, I told him he wasn't going anywhere and he insisted he had to go. I asked him why had he hit us and he said 'well the sun was in my eyes as I came round the corner and I couldn't see anything'. I said 'so when you can't SEE ANYTHING you should SLOW DOWN!!!!!' I had to make him give me his documents from the car and then he said 'tell me which house you live at and I'll come and see you after to sort out the insurance documents'.
Then he left me shaking by the road to walk my lame horse back to home, where there was no one else in. No offer to call anyone for me. No concern as to whether I was OK. I went home and called my husband and then called the vet.
So, bottom line is that Lutine's not badly hurt. She was stiff and sore and a bit subdued but otherwise seems OK. The cuts on her leg were just superficial. I think the fact that it was a low slung sports car meant that it had knocked her on to the bonnet, or else she somehow managed to jump on to the bonnet with her hind legs and avoided getting badly hurt.
The Good Doctor came back round an hour later, just as the vet was leaving, to fill in the insurance documents. Absolutely no remorse. Full of excuses like 'look this is the first accident I've had in all my years of driving. No one was hurt so what's all the fuss about'. I took him out to the lane and said 'you have what? 300m of good visibility here and you still manage to hit a [16.3hh] horse. You could have seen us from all the way back here'. What did he say? 'Well, I'm not going to be looking THAT far ahead of me when I'm driving am I??' I couldn't believe my ears! I said 'can you imagine if you'd hit me and my daughter out on our horses because we ride along this line every time we go out' and his answer was 'Ah, don't start lecturing me on this and that. The bottom line is that no one was hurt so don't start taking the moral high ground with me'.
I honestly could not believe my ears. I yelled at him 'don't give me your excuses because you DON'T have any good excuses. You were in a rush, you weren't paying attention to the road ahead and you caused an accident. Don't concentrate on the outcomes of that because that's not the point. You were just LUCKY that you didn't kill someone' and then I shut the kitchen door on him and made him stand outside and sent my husband out to fill in the insurance documents. I was FUMING and shaking and I just could not believe this guy's attitude. Even my husband thought he behaved disgracefully.
He tried to argue that Lutine and I were in the middle of the road and that's why he'd hit us. We were in the middle of his path as he hit us because on the right hand side of the road was a deep ditch and a bank and we were trying to throw ourselves out of his path at the time he hit us. The fact was he wasn't concentrating on his driving, he wasn't looking ahead of him on the road, he came round a corner and ran into the back of Lutine. He was lucky that I'd seen him and managed to throw myself out of his way in time. I really thought I was going to end up on the bonnet under the horse at the time I knew he was going to hit us.
We reported this accident to the Gendarmerie - it's the second time we've had such and incident. The Gendarmerie were totally uninterested but we insisted that they note it in the accident book because, as my husband said, 'when we're up to the 10th accident, or when someone gets killed on this lane, you won't be able to say you didn't know about the problems'. Anyway, the Gendarmerie were useful in that they informed us it was the local Maire who has the power to change speed limits and ask for other safety changes. So that's our aim now. To get something down about this lane outside our house, which some pillocks use like a race track.
I'm still pretty angry, especially at this moron's attitude. Thanks for listening to my rant.
I saw this idiot coming up the lane at a good pelt in his lovely shiny black Alfa Romeo sports car. He started climbing the hill - I thought 'he's not slowing down', he came round the corner, I turned to signal to tell him to SLOW DOWN, thought 'he's going to hit us' and - it all happened in a split second - I dived out of the way of the car, heard a sickening BLAM behind me as he hit Lutine and then she shot past me, jumped the ditch and stood on the other side, snorting.
I'd honestly thought, when I heard him hit her, that I was going to turn round to see my horse in pieces on the road. Initially all I could see was that she'd got some skin lacerations on her back leg but she seemed to be bearing weight on it. She then stood on the verge snatching anxiously at grass.
And then the guy's behaviour was another thing. He WOUND HIS WINDOW DOWN and said 'is the horse OK then?' I screamed at him to GET OUT OF THE CAR. He got out and went to have a look at the damage to his bonnet where my poor horse had sat on it when he hit her. Then he came to me and said 'look, I have to go because I am a Doctor and I've had an urgent call out. The horse looks OK, doesn't it?' I almost couldn't speak, I couldn't remember my French properly, I told him he wasn't going anywhere and he insisted he had to go. I asked him why had he hit us and he said 'well the sun was in my eyes as I came round the corner and I couldn't see anything'. I said 'so when you can't SEE ANYTHING you should SLOW DOWN!!!!!' I had to make him give me his documents from the car and then he said 'tell me which house you live at and I'll come and see you after to sort out the insurance documents'.
Then he left me shaking by the road to walk my lame horse back to home, where there was no one else in. No offer to call anyone for me. No concern as to whether I was OK. I went home and called my husband and then called the vet.
So, bottom line is that Lutine's not badly hurt. She was stiff and sore and a bit subdued but otherwise seems OK. The cuts on her leg were just superficial. I think the fact that it was a low slung sports car meant that it had knocked her on to the bonnet, or else she somehow managed to jump on to the bonnet with her hind legs and avoided getting badly hurt.
The Good Doctor came back round an hour later, just as the vet was leaving, to fill in the insurance documents. Absolutely no remorse. Full of excuses like 'look this is the first accident I've had in all my years of driving. No one was hurt so what's all the fuss about'. I took him out to the lane and said 'you have what? 300m of good visibility here and you still manage to hit a [16.3hh] horse. You could have seen us from all the way back here'. What did he say? 'Well, I'm not going to be looking THAT far ahead of me when I'm driving am I??' I couldn't believe my ears! I said 'can you imagine if you'd hit me and my daughter out on our horses because we ride along this line every time we go out' and his answer was 'Ah, don't start lecturing me on this and that. The bottom line is that no one was hurt so don't start taking the moral high ground with me'.
I honestly could not believe my ears. I yelled at him 'don't give me your excuses because you DON'T have any good excuses. You were in a rush, you weren't paying attention to the road ahead and you caused an accident. Don't concentrate on the outcomes of that because that's not the point. You were just LUCKY that you didn't kill someone' and then I shut the kitchen door on him and made him stand outside and sent my husband out to fill in the insurance documents. I was FUMING and shaking and I just could not believe this guy's attitude. Even my husband thought he behaved disgracefully.
He tried to argue that Lutine and I were in the middle of the road and that's why he'd hit us. We were in the middle of his path as he hit us because on the right hand side of the road was a deep ditch and a bank and we were trying to throw ourselves out of his path at the time he hit us. The fact was he wasn't concentrating on his driving, he wasn't looking ahead of him on the road, he came round a corner and ran into the back of Lutine. He was lucky that I'd seen him and managed to throw myself out of his way in time. I really thought I was going to end up on the bonnet under the horse at the time I knew he was going to hit us.
We reported this accident to the Gendarmerie - it's the second time we've had such and incident. The Gendarmerie were totally uninterested but we insisted that they note it in the accident book because, as my husband said, 'when we're up to the 10th accident, or when someone gets killed on this lane, you won't be able to say you didn't know about the problems'. Anyway, the Gendarmerie were useful in that they informed us it was the local Maire who has the power to change speed limits and ask for other safety changes. So that's our aim now. To get something down about this lane outside our house, which some pillocks use like a race track.
I'm still pretty angry, especially at this moron's attitude. Thanks for listening to my rant.