Saturday, January 27, 2007

Road Rage in Funeral Cortege


You'd have to be incredibly selfish (or stupid?) to start a road rage incident with an undertaker conducting a funeral, especially a cortege with a horse-drawn hearse. Bad enough going to a funeral at the best of times if recently bereaved, without delays caused by an aggressive altercation with a bus driver on top of that...

A bus driver apparently drove his bus straight into a London funeral procession consisting of various cars and a horse-drawn hearse, causing one of the horses to lose a shoe. The undertaker conducting the funeral, Jon Dyer from Albins of Bermondsey, said "I thought he may have pulled out by mistake, so I got out of the car and asked him to keep the bus where it was so the cortege could get past. But he drove the bus into me, and pushed me along the road until he reached the traffic islands." Another angry motorist apparently got out of his car and had words with the bus driver, while passengers on the bus looked horrified at what was going on.
(Funeralwire, 24.1.07)

I can imagine it, as it's not an uncommon incident on London roads, but in the middle of a funeral procession... There's enough responsibility for diligent undertakers to get everything right at funerals anyway, without road rage too. It's not like you're given a second chance to get a funeral right... and how are the bereaved family going to remember that event?

The illustration of the funeral procession isn't Albins, it's an actual 19th century one. Modern Victorian-style ones don't quite stretch to using feathered trays, as far as I know. I wonder if they had a Victorian road-rage equivalent... I guess angry, impatient people are fairly universal throughout history.

Update 2nd Feb. The bus driver ended up being sacked, after a disciplinary hearing by his bus company. Unsurprising, considering the situation. (Funeralwire 2/2/07)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What a git good news he got the sack