Accident

Two days after my arrival in Italy, on an early Saturday morning, I was awaken by a tremedous noise, right underneath my first floor bedroom window, which was kept open due to the hot weather. The view that appeared below when I peeked out looked dreadful (see pictures below).

Two black cars (an Alfa and a Mini), a few feet apart, were completely smashed against my house: a young man. unhurt and standing with a cell phone in hand, was asking the other driver (a woman, still sitting in her small car and moaning) whether he should call an ambulance! In a couple of minutes I was dressed and with camera in hand I descended onto the street to see what I could do. The scene that followed was beyond my belief! The woman was pretty badly hurt. She was a local nurse, going to work at 6am. Her mother witnessed the accident while walking her dog, and came to her assistance immediately. The man, in his 30's, looked sober although he confessed loudly that he did not see the intersection (my house is on a corner of a 4 way crossing). A few neighbors also attracted by the big bang, came running and tried to call the local police, which, I was informed however, being a weekend, was not available. The response came from another larger town, 3/4 of an hour away, and, only after the ambulance arrived, a police car appeared with 2 'carabinieri' in it. One of them never got out of the car, while his colleague was gathering information and making notes. The latter even asked the father of the victim (who meakly obliged!) to help him take measurements, while his partner was sitting and watching the entire scene..... I took some pictures and took notes that I offered to the victim's family. The man who caused the accident called his father, who also arrived on the scene. After about 1 1/2 hour a pickup truck also arrived and expeditiously loaded the 2 cars and even cleaned up part of the debris, which littered 2 streets for many feet. In addition to the shattered glass there was a lot of spilled oil and gasoline, which made walking quite treacherous. Some of the local people even hinted that I should clean the street because the town would not do this except on a designated day during the week. This was certainly an eye-opening experience for me about the Italian state services, and a heck of a way to start my work visit in Italy!!