From Sravanthi Vallampati's desk:
I can't say that I did not wake up with a heavy heart this morning but what's making me write this note is more than just that. As I pondered over the loss of a dear friend whose impact on me and the community is most uncommon, my thoughts went out to her family and those whose lives she has touched and the terrible unexpectedness of the tragedy that took her life. Racing images of icy highways, treacherous driving conditions and screeching tires inevitably ended in a heavy intolerable sigh and a slight frown carved itself onto my brow as I scrambled through early hours of today.
Finishing the last of my coffee, I looked out of the window. It was a bright beautiful morning that seemed to hold nothing but promise of a great start to the weekend. I laced up my boots and ventured out. Standing at the foot of the garage, I took a few deep breaths until I was able to trace the path of the crisp, cold air as it somewhat loosened the pangs of sadness in my guts. Sunlight danced on the icy twigs on my flowering Crabapple tree and I mused for a few moments over whether my hardy Mums and rambler Roses had it in them to withstand the cruelty of this prolonged winter to bounce back and bloom for me, before jumping into my car to make it into work. Pulling out of my garage, I heard the snow crack under me as I put the gear in reverse. The temperature gauge read 28*F. In exactly 3 minutes a steady drop took it to -5*F. It was the coldest day (yet) of the season. My gloved grip involuntarily tightened on the steering wheel as tidings of 'driving gone wrong' from the early morning news still lingered in my mind. School buses were nowhere to be seen on the local roads but familiar frequency of the usual workforce driving past helped me settle down after the initial nervousness. I approached the merge to I-271N at Broadway. The traffic was slow. Nothing out of the ordinary, I said to myself. I turned the radio on to 107.3 FM and stayed in the center lane at 5 mph. It was not until I hit Rockside road that I saw unfolding in front of my eyes, the reason for the delay. It was not a sudden commitment to cautious driving or the slow moving liquid deicer trucks nor was it road construction. The scene I witnessed could pass for a movie set but there were no cameras. Ambulance and police car lights penetrated the morning glare as onlookers gazed and some impacted drivers still in their seats, looked like they were wondering if they could ever extricate themselves out of this mess. My heart skipped a few beats as I thought about some drivers that were not at the scene at all. Within a miles' span were 4 accidents. In whichever way I tried, I could not arrive at any pattern to explain why or how these automobiles could be stationed across mounds of snow, perched on top of steel barricades and on one another, and rammed nose-down into highway dividers. Were they going North or South when this happened?
I wasn't sure if I was shocked, sad or angry as I passed but I guess this reflection is a manifestation of a combination of those emotions and more. I could go on a few pages about the importance of safety and the code of responsibility, individual and institutional, and rattle off a million statistics exposed by road crash data systems but that is not my intent. While we all know that it is in our best interest to be safe drivers we let the consciousness slip once in a while and are too quick to dismiss our part in making the world a safer place for ourselves, those that wait for us to come home as well as for those that have others waiting for them.
How accidents happen is subject to endless interpretation. Speed, bad roads, ice, lack of sleep, stress, race against time, deer, alcohol, sun glare, reckless driving etc. etc. Whatever the reason, it is a loss of some sort, loss that is sometimes irreparable. Of property, money, time and most important of all, Life! It is on days like this that I am reminded of how unpredictable our lives are and how very fundamental it is for all of us to be thankful for the goodness that surrounds us and to realize and value such a blessing. Until such time as every car on the highway is an 'uncrashable car', I hope that you will think twice before you step on gas just that bit more, reach out to take that phone call or get distracted by that teasing poster. Sure there parameters that are totally out of our realm of control, but there is no question that by taking responsibility for our conduct on the road we can mitigate our position of vulnerability just that much more. To conclude, I pray that we think of the value of our life as well as that of others when we are out on those highways, and that my mornings bring me back the sweet simplicity where I can just stand at the foot of my garage once more, breathe-in the cold air and muse over the hardiness of my flowers with nothing else on my mind.
I can't say that I did not wake up with a heavy heart this morning but what's making me write this note is more than just that. As I pondered over the loss of a dear friend whose impact on me and the community is most uncommon, my thoughts went out to her family and those whose lives she has touched and the terrible unexpectedness of the tragedy that took her life. Racing images of icy highways, treacherous driving conditions and screeching tires inevitably ended in a heavy intolerable sigh and a slight frown carved itself onto my brow as I scrambled through early hours of today.
Finishing the last of my coffee, I looked out of the window. It was a bright beautiful morning that seemed to hold nothing but promise of a great start to the weekend. I laced up my boots and ventured out. Standing at the foot of the garage, I took a few deep breaths until I was able to trace the path of the crisp, cold air as it somewhat loosened the pangs of sadness in my guts. Sunlight danced on the icy twigs on my flowering Crabapple tree and I mused for a few moments over whether my hardy Mums and rambler Roses had it in them to withstand the cruelty of this prolonged winter to bounce back and bloom for me, before jumping into my car to make it into work. Pulling out of my garage, I heard the snow crack under me as I put the gear in reverse. The temperature gauge read 28*F. In exactly 3 minutes a steady drop took it to -5*F. It was the coldest day (yet) of the season. My gloved grip involuntarily tightened on the steering wheel as tidings of 'driving gone wrong' from the early morning news still lingered in my mind. School buses were nowhere to be seen on the local roads but familiar frequency of the usual workforce driving past helped me settle down after the initial nervousness. I approached the merge to I-271N at Broadway. The traffic was slow. Nothing out of the ordinary, I said to myself. I turned the radio on to 107.3 FM and stayed in the center lane at 5 mph. It was not until I hit Rockside road that I saw unfolding in front of my eyes, the reason for the delay. It was not a sudden commitment to cautious driving or the slow moving liquid deicer trucks nor was it road construction. The scene I witnessed could pass for a movie set but there were no cameras. Ambulance and police car lights penetrated the morning glare as onlookers gazed and some impacted drivers still in their seats, looked like they were wondering if they could ever extricate themselves out of this mess. My heart skipped a few beats as I thought about some drivers that were not at the scene at all. Within a miles' span were 4 accidents. In whichever way I tried, I could not arrive at any pattern to explain why or how these automobiles could be stationed across mounds of snow, perched on top of steel barricades and on one another, and rammed nose-down into highway dividers. Were they going North or South when this happened?
I wasn't sure if I was shocked, sad or angry as I passed but I guess this reflection is a manifestation of a combination of those emotions and more. I could go on a few pages about the importance of safety and the code of responsibility, individual and institutional, and rattle off a million statistics exposed by road crash data systems but that is not my intent. While we all know that it is in our best interest to be safe drivers we let the consciousness slip once in a while and are too quick to dismiss our part in making the world a safer place for ourselves, those that wait for us to come home as well as for those that have others waiting for them.
How accidents happen is subject to endless interpretation. Speed, bad roads, ice, lack of sleep, stress, race against time, deer, alcohol, sun glare, reckless driving etc. etc. Whatever the reason, it is a loss of some sort, loss that is sometimes irreparable. Of property, money, time and most important of all, Life! It is on days like this that I am reminded of how unpredictable our lives are and how very fundamental it is for all of us to be thankful for the goodness that surrounds us and to realize and value such a blessing. Until such time as every car on the highway is an 'uncrashable car', I hope that you will think twice before you step on gas just that bit more, reach out to take that phone call or get distracted by that teasing poster. Sure there parameters that are totally out of our realm of control, but there is no question that by taking responsibility for our conduct on the road we can mitigate our position of vulnerability just that much more. To conclude, I pray that we think of the value of our life as well as that of others when we are out on those highways, and that my mornings bring me back the sweet simplicity where I can just stand at the foot of my garage once more, breathe-in the cold air and muse over the hardiness of my flowers with nothing else on my mind.
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