We treat traffic reports like the weather: “Bit of rain, bit of a jam.” But this one is different. A family is having the worst morning of their lives right now. Imagine the person on that road was just like you—maybe they were rushing to pick up their kid from school, or heading to a dentist appointment they’d been dreading.
They had a favorite playlist, a messy glovebox, and a parking ticket they forgot to pay. They were utterly, boringly normal. That’s why this matters. Because normal is the most precious thing we have.
The Little Things We Forget
Think about the last time you drove through Pease Pottage or past the Manor Royal roundabout. You probably weren’t thinking about your mortality. You were thinking about whether to get a Greggs sausage roll or a Tesco meal deal. That’s the scary part—we get so comfortable with the humdrum that we forget the road demands our full attention.
My neighbor, Dave, once missed his exit because he was arguing with his sat-nav about a faster route. He laughed it off. But what if that argument had made him swerve? Today’s accident is a reminder that your car is a two-tonne metal box hurtling through space. It’s not a living room on wheels.
A23 partially blocked at Crawley: crash causing slow traffic in area
