Know to the police
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2007-01-16 08:23:09 - Graham EllisShould I be worried when the local police(wo)man knows me by name?
A car accident on the corner just outside "Well House Manor" in the pouring rain. The bang could be heard from The Manor, and Martin and I go out to see if we can help. Three vehicles have come to rest in various inconvenient places; everyone seems OK, but shocked and traffic is building up.
Old habits die hard. What's needed. Medical? No thank goodness. Emergency service calls? Done already. Traffic direction. Funny how a skill taught and learnt over 30 years ago comes back, isn't it? Did you know I used to be a lollipop man, on a busy corner / roundabout at the top of an urban dual carriageway? I confess, I quite enjoyed keeping the traffic moving from 4 roads, each one at a time. And watching out for schoolchildren too / a quick word to make sure they knew to wait, and the balance between getting as much traffic through in big chunks and people getting frustrated at waiting.
One of the neighbours popped out with a brigher jacket than I was wearing - visibility is vital, especially as two of the sets of traffic were stopping a ways back. And then - thank goodness - up comes a police car ... with the officer going first to check on the accident and people involved. Then she comes over to me. "Thank you Graham" (yikes - known to police). "My pleasure, Anne - would you like to take over". "No thanks - you're doing fine. I've got someone coming along to take over from you ...." and sure, after a further five minutes I was relieved of duty.
I hope that some of the teaching and training that I do stays with people as long as the quick lessons I had from, tutor unknown, on traffic control. I suspect I was taught by David Howie who once refereed a final at Wimbledon, but that's a story for another day. I'm getting dry and calm enough now to stop blogging and get back to a letter on Zope.