Diatribe.

I have mentioned in previous posts that the traffic system in Cusco is chaotic at best.  According to those who have visited, Lima is even worse.  Over the course of the past three weeks, the erratic driving and lack of traffic law enforcement has floated between amusing and annoying, depending on how tightly I am smashed against a bus window at the time.  Since posting about a week ago that I have yet to see a single accident, I have seen two.

The first barely even counts as an accident.  One bus hit the bus on which I was riding.  The collision was so soft that I did not even know that anything had happened until the driver jumped out to confront the other bus driver.  The second happened today, and for a lot of reasons has left a very strong and angry impression on me.

Put simply, pedestrians do not have a right away here.  A glowing walk sign at a crosswalk during a red light means next to nothing to the cars that are turing through the lane.  What is worse is when people cross the main street in town, Avenida de la Cultura.  Regardless of whether a pedestrian is crossing in the crosswalk or running across the middle of the street, drivers show absolutely no restraint or caution for the people.  If they are feeling considerate, a driver will honk his horn as he blows past those crossing, sometimes only missing them by a step or two.

It is watching the drivers do this time and again, sometimes with police officers standing by idly, that makes today so exasperating.  Certainly, there is always something upsetting about seeing someone who has been hit by a car, but looking out the bus window to see a girl, not older than fourteen, dressed in her school uniform and on her way home for the day, lying motionless on the asphault in front of a stopped car is infuriating.  When I told my host family about seeing it, the reaction was centered around how the girl must not have been being careful, and undoubtedly, at some point she made a poor decision.  But that in no way excuses what assuredly was a driver that never let his foot of the gas.

The reaction of the people on the bus was one of shock and surprise too, as if this was not an entirely foreseeable and preventable accident.  It blows my mind that even if there is not an enforced legal right of way for pedestrians that drivers do not feel some level of moral and conscientious responsibility to show some negible amount of care in the way they are driving here.  It would take such a minuscule amount of awareness and respect for those driving and crossing the street to prevent some little girl from ending up helpless on the street during her walk home from school.

I do not know what became of the girl, but I pray that she was ok.  The was no blood on the pavement, so hopefully by some miracle, she survived and is alright.  As we were pulling off, a group of men was lifting her into the back of a car, presumably and hopefully to head to the hospital.  I understand their panic and desire to help, but I could not help but think how dangerous it was to be lifting someone who could easily have suffered a head or neck injury like that.  I guess when you act that selfishly behind the wheel, it does not cross your mind to call for an ambulance after you've hurt someone.

-Scott