Finishing out the series on Pedestrian Safety with A Painful Case by James Joyce

Now you’re on the roadside after breaking down, you’re pulling out your cell phone, call triple A and the tow truck arrives. The operator exits his truck and wham! He’s suddenly struck by an oncoming car. Unbelievable, you say.  Not so.

Santa Clara, California – December 2008 - My friend John Bisnar from California blogs about an instance of a ground crew mechanic working on the ground near a helicopter. A wind gust blows over a helicopter, causing it to spin out of control, and a blade struck the mechanic, killing him.  This helicopter was being used by the power company to string power lines between poles. Interesting to say the least and it explains why the worker would not be so concerned with keeping his eye on the helicopter. This workers attention needed to be focused on whatever his job may have been that day.

Pana, Illinois – January 2009 – Clothe colors can make all the difference.  Reflective tape also helps. In this case the truck driver was unable to see the man walking along Illinois highway 29. The man was struck and killed. The driver explained with the darkness, 7:30 p.m. he was unable to see the pedestrian walking. What this 60-year-old man was doing walking on the side of the highway we don’t know but we do know the driver was unable to see him.

Vancouver, Canada – November 2008 – A garbage truck struck and killed a pedestrian just after noon while he was walking. We’ve had this happen right here in Des Moines, Iowa.

Tama, Iowa – April 2009 – I reported on a young Iowa woman who was struck and killed by a train. This train-pedestrian accident has striking similarities to the story written by James Joyce in Dubliners. A Painful Case is a short story about Mr. Duffy who rebuffs Mrs. Sinico, and then four years later realizes he has condemned her to loneliness by rejection and then death. This realization strikes him while reading her obituary that describes her death being caused by a train as she walked across the tracks at Sidney Park, a train station on Sidney Parade Avenue, in the village of Merion, southeast of Dublin.

Barbara and I sojourned to Dublin for a two-week drive around the southeast and west until we found our way back to the streets of Dublin and more specifically, Fleet Street and the Temple Bar District. Ah yes, sit will you for a pint of Guinness?