The day before yesterday I went out for a jogging session in the evening, together with my dog Sydney. The countryside looks wonderful these days with a 2 cm snow cover all over the place and a reviving, cold and dry air.
So at 7 pm, it had already been dark for 2 hours outside, I started. I went from my mothers house a bit north, followed the Autobahn 6 to the east and turned north, then, after a few hundred meters, turned west again, jogging towards the village of Treschklingen.
Here I have put a track on my website, which you can view in Google Maps or download to Google Earth.
Click either the image above or here to view the way I took on Google Maps.
So now I was jogging on this long, straight stretch, the snow was clicking under my shoes and the dog was 10 m ahead. I slowly fell in this state of trance where you don’t realize time very much any more, where you’re just enjoying and not thinking (too much).
Suddenly I spotted this yellow light shining onto the snow in front of me, I thought for a second and immediately realized that I was in danger. I turned around while still running forward and these two light circles blinded me. Intuitively I raised my hands and waved with them to make the car - now maybe 20 m from me, slow down. I turned around and hoped that by stopping in the middle of the path and signaling with my hands, I could make it stop and get my dog on the leash, thereby hopefully saving his precious life … as a experienced search and rescue dog with several years of training and some successful searches, he should be worth something at least to society, am I right? And of course there’s this pearsonal binding to this being that’s been around me for many years of my life. I still like it even after being on the road for so long having hundreds of bad experiences with other dogs.
So now I hoped that the car would slow down, that the driver would respect my concern about the dog’s and my own lives, that he would honor human dignity, just a normal thing probably most of the people in this “developed” and “civilized” country will understand.
But I was so wrong. Within no time and without slowing down the car continued driving towards me at an estimated 35 to 45 km/h. I jumped to the right side throwing the leash towards the car right in front of me to make it stop, to make it stop at least for my dog that’s not as aware of its surrounding environment as I am, that is not used to dangerous traffic the way I am used to it.
But the car didn’t slow down for the dog either. Luckily the dog was just sniffing some other dogs tracks somewhere beside the road and the car just dashed by.
Now I was lucky and happy that nobody got hurt. But at the same time I got very very angry about this inhuman behavior of the driver. I hoped he would slow down shouting at me for throwing the leash at his car … but no way. Kind of hit-and-run driving, rules that I was not used to, something I’ve actually never experienced here before and also not on my worldtour. Nowhere.
He must have seen me because of the reflectors on my back and the reflectors on the head torch I had used. He didn’t honk, no light signal and I was running with the back towards him!
What made this driver behave like that? Probably he must have been drunk and knowing that he was illegal in his actions in two ways, namely being drunk and driving on a path reserved for humans and farming vehicles, he reacted in panic. That’s the most likely version of what I could think about.
I’m actually thinking about filing charges now. I know about the type and color of the vehicle, I guess that he’s been a local because he knew this shortcut, I know the time and maybe it would make sense. Sense because of the inacceptable behavior and because of the statistical data about the danger of motorized vehicles to our society, about the suffering and discrimination they cause. But I’m not sure about that yet.
Maybe one of my readers wants to share his/her ideas on that with me, either via e-mail (daniel () sonnefueralle O de) or by commenting …
What if I had been an old man or woman not reacting that fast, not realizing the danger approaching from behind?
By the way: The map at the bottom of the post shows you the exact position … you only have to zoom in a few steps.