Queueing at the bus stop

A little Cloudy.21C

Speaking of accident at/near bus stop, I have actually experienced one a few years back.

It was after work, and I was waiting for my bus home outside Admiralty Park (opposite to Pacific Place). The bus stop, maybe I should say bus stops, was really just some poles set up on the side of the pavement with no railing, with different numbers on the plate. My bus was at the last bus stop and going forward there were at least another half a dozen lining up (if you pass by Admiralty, you will know what I mean). Each bus stop catered for at least 6 buses, so you can imagine how crowded the "stop" was - the pavement was usually 80% filled with passengers, and most of those people would stand near the side so they could wave at their buses when they saw them approach and jumped on immediately. I would like to do that as well, but given that there were so many vehicles on the road, the air pollution near the roadside was at least 3 times worse than usual. So, in order to keep myself alive from inhaling too much SO2 or CO2, I usually reside to the back of the pavement, which was just right outside of the wall of Admiralty Park.

That day, traffic was busy as usual and there were a lot of people at the bus stops. It was already quite dark, I can't remember what time it was, but it was already dark. I have been waiting for at least 15 minutes and I was quite fatigued that day (I forgot why). While I was getting impatient, a taxi suddenly lost control, bumped onto the pavement and hit one of the bus stop poles. Without saying, the bus stop poles fell onto the pavement without even wobbling. People bounced to the side and to the back of the pavement right away and I became totally awaken (but not shocked to the extent that my knees went weak).

All that happened within 5 seconds. I didn't even see how that taxi lost control. All I could see was the pole falling down onto the street with a loud clash.

Luckily, people who stood close by the pole got away in time so nobody was hurt. But I think many were scared or shocked. And luckily, it was only the bus stop pole (it was the kind that was planted to the ground by cement, not the kind that was place on the pavement with a heavy weight at the bottom so it could be moved freely), and damage was light. There was no chain car accident neither, so I suppose the drivers behind the taxi wasn't following too closely and was able to hit the brake in time.

But that was really scary. For a few months, I stopped going to that bus stop and I made myself stay well clear away from the side of any pavement unless necessary.