24 April, 2007

This means you

It seemed a little gratuitous to mention it here, but a student was run-over by a truck yesterday afternoon, right outside my window.  The scream was memorable.

During renovation work, delivery vehicles have been accessing the library and central admin buildings by reversing along a long gravel track by the underpass. The path is about as wide as a truck, with a steep slope on one side and a building on the other, providing poor visibility to drivers and few opportunities for an unnoticed pedestrian to dodge out of the way. It seems the obvious finally happened, and the student's arm was crushed.

An immediate response was to close off the track to vehicles, using two traffic cones and a large crash barrier. Yet already this morning one truck driver has gone to the trouble of parking, removing the obstruction, then continuing as normal.

It was impressive to see how quickly the security officers arrived to kick him out, without making the delivery.