Chasing Cars


I was sitting in front of the computer screen minding someone else's business, when the mobile rang.

""Insurethebox" (my car insurance company) here, are you alright?"

I automatically said "Yes".

The delightfully northern female voice explained "Our system has registered an incident in Grove Road; were you involved in an accident?" I now understood.

"No, I'm fine; just went up on the curb, I keep forgetting the little black box in the car."

"As long as you're OK, sir. Have a nice evening." And with that she rang off.

We'd taken GinjatheNinja to the vet. The poor little mutt had been in a fight and ended up on the wrong end of a pretty serious beating. Both his ears were blooded, his head had been badly scratched and his side was sore. He had been well and truly thumped cat style.

This has happened sometime on Saturday night/Sunday morning. He spent the rest of Sunday on our bed, asleep and feeling extremely sorry for himself. Monday he also slept and in the evening the missus and I decided that a trip to the vet was in order.

Fifteen minutes later we managed to get the cat, two towels and a blanket into the cat basket. A dash to the vet and two injections just in case, later saw the three of us back in the car. Except so distracted was I by Ginja's plight I missed the road and mounted the payment as we left the vet. Which lead to the call from my insurer.

After the call I began thinking about the people who phone you up after you've triggered the insurer's alarm system.

In my case, it was nothing, but what if one of the cars involved  the recent horrific M5 accident had a black box in it? I suspect the resulting rapid deceleration recorded by the instrument would alert the system to the possibility that a serious incident may have occurred. Even so it must be pretty unnerving making that call knowing that you could be speaking to someone who's been seriously injured or involved in a fatal crash.

What must they think if the phone goes unanswered?


Comments

Anonymous said…
No reply, no reply.

Coutesy Lennon and McCartney
Marginalia said…
Dear Jimmy Saville, thank you.
Anonymous said…
Now then, now then. Next up on celestial Top of the Pops is......
The way I drive, I'd be getting daily phone calls. LOL.

And to answer your question on my blog: Yes, Bella still uses the potty. She has no alternative because I threw the litter box out over a year ago. Hee hee.
Steve said…
Either way it's not a job I would care to do.
The Sagittarian said…
I didn't know that could even be done! Round here they would have their work cut out for them, so many pot holes and lumps n bumps in our roads at the moment!
Glad Ginga is ok tho'....I took Ernie the Handsomest Cat in the World to the vet last week too...he has a film or something over one eye but the vet is not sure what it is, it's not all the usual suspects so $52.00 later the advice I got was to take him back in a fortnight.....
Selina Kingston said…
Am I being really stupid? (Don't say yes!) What is the black box?
Marginalia said…
Dear James, glad to see you're still groovin' on the other side. Loved your coffin.

Dear ETW surely not!

Dear Steve, not a job for a call centre in Bangalore.

Dear Sag, Glad to say Ginja is his old self - he scratched me this morning. He sends his purrs.

Dear Salina, the "black box" is a piece of electronic wizardry that is fitted behind the dash. It has an accelerometer, a gps unit and a radio transmitter along with a processor. The processor collects details of your speed, acceleration and stopping speeds, times of travel, miles you travel and speed you travel, and where you are. It sends all the info to the insurer's call centre and I can also see the info on line.

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