This is the first mood piece I’m initiating on a topic that affects all of us.
A mood piece to try making the bitter pill of a fact that is in no way trivial for the parents and friends of a little girl fighting for her life due to a moment of distraction easier to swallow.
An accident is not fate in a city where caution is required at every moment.
Whether we are mere pedestrians or involved in road traffic, we all encounter Niçoise rudeness as soon as we leave our homes.
How can someone, in the fifth largest city of France, still endanger another’s life while behind the wheel of their vehicle?
How is it possible, especially if one is a professional “driver”?
The big question today is especially “WHY”?
What are the stakes in the absurd overflows that anyone can observe at every street corner?
What are we looking for when we don’t take the time to perform standard checks?
How does the bus driver, who last Thursday ran over an 11-year-old girl leaving her motionless on the ground, feel today?
Is his life steeped in torpidity like the parents of this little angel?
Can he still look at himself in the mirror? Does he still speak the same way as before? Did it take being the unwanted actor in a little girl’s life to realize that the vehicle he drove was just a means of transport? Was it worth the candle?
He might say his working conditions are tough, mine are too, “big deal”.
He had a terrible stomach bug. He could say he regrets it but it wouldn’t change anything.
This child is still lying under a sheet, hooked to an IV drip, whereas she should be playing the clown to make her parents and all who love her laugh, she should be jumping in the waves like the others have since.
Instead, everyone is praying that she will pull through and I pray with them 60 times per minute. I also pray for all of this to finally stop and for road crime to end.
There are too many reckless drivers in Nice and it’s no secret.
It’s not unusual to see Prost’s devotees on the Promenade des Anglais, crazy slalomers on the express lanes despite the continuous white lines. It’s not uncommon to hear roaring engines on the access roads. I won’t even mention the optional use of rear-view mirrors and turn indicators commonly known as blinkers!!!
It is an institution in Nice to run through orange and red lights and to try to run over pedestrians, as proof!!!
I learned that a man I knew died on his scooter just the next day so goodbye Alain and what?!!! Is that it? Do we just move on as if it’s all normal?
If neither traffic jams nor constant changes in traffic directions have taught the Niçoise population to slow down with philosophy, then REPRESSION and zero tolerance.
Protect our children from the crazies who drive safely.
And then it’s up to justice to severely punish reckless drivers. Driving manslaughter doesn’t cost more than 7 years in prison but where are we going? Into what dark abyss are we being carried?
No matter the circumstances of last Thursday’s accident,
-1/ one must always remain in control of their vehicle
-2/ an engaged pedestrian IS a priority pedestrian
-3/ there are no “buts”
Violence is quite present from news, to video games. The horror of incivility surrounds us from supermarkets to restaurants, so STOP.
When driving, slow down, respect those unprotected by a metal body, give one meter to motorcyclists when they are behind or in front of us, and stop using your steering wheel as a show-off tool or attribute.
A man is not more virile because he cuts someone off. A woman doesn’t dominate anything if she starts first at the red light.
We put makeup on before we leave. We talk with hands-free kits. We forget alcohol. In short, we take our precautions. We are adults behind the wheel, and we protect others, or else it’s to the pit.
The stake in all this is LIFE. The same life that is protected for 9 months in the womb. The same life that we celebrate each birthday.
This life that we console in times of sorrow and celebrate under a Christmas tree.
Still in a coma since then with no news for days!!!
The controversy still deserves a few lines because there’s ENOUGH of public dangers on the roads.
Are buses dangerous in Nice?
Are they more dangerous than elsewhere in France?
Are they exasperated by the construction?
Will the tram be safer?
Drivers are only human, so what are their working conditions?
Shouldn’t we have more 30 km/h zones?
Nothing we can say or do will change the respect we owe when we have an advantage over others.
Sometimes the pedestrian is dumb but everywhere he must be KING.
From Digne to Monaco, just being on the edge of the sidewalk instantly stops a car approaching a crosswalk, PROTECT
Only in Nice is driving rudeness an institution, so GENTLEMEN take responsibility and enforce because it is unacceptable for such an “accident” to happen.
The entire team of Nice Première joins me in praying for this little girl’s survival, to support this family and all the others who are victims of those who go unpunished, those who should be numerous to enforce the fundamental laws of urban protection.
To whom it may concern, farewell.
