 Ah, perfidious Albion! As if it knew
I'd be writing Albion's epitaph this night of April 2nd, 2001,
Queens Boulevard found a way to serve up its latest victim on
a silver platter, or maybe it would be better described as a
chrome plated platter. That platter was the right side rear view
mirror of a tour bus heading westbound, that struck a wayward
jogger, one Nicholas Sczesnik, in the head right here and left
him, as of this writing, on life support. In interviews with
friends and neighbors, the injured jogger was described as a
wonderful guy, but the immediate witnesses to the accident probably
came away with a different perspective. Only seconds before being
struck by the mirror as the bus passed him, according to the
report in April 2nd's Daily News, Sczesnik was seen flipping
the bird to a cabbie who had honked at him in an effort to get
him to move off the roadway, where he was observed meandering
into the center of the three service lanes as he jogged, apparently
oblivious to the danger he was creating, a set of headphones
covering his ears. The bus driver was not charged or given any
summons, and has expressed proper concern since for the Sczesnik's
condition. If the witnesses are to be believed, and they certainly
had no reason to lie, then the sad bottom line truth is that
Mr. Sczesnik was somewhat devoid of common sense, to put it the
most benignly. My sympathy lies more with the traumatized bus
driver, and the poor flipped off cabbie, who has to now wonder
if he should have just left well enough alone, and not tried
to honk some badly absent common sense into the victim's head.
As for Sczesnik, if he recovers, I would hope he'd undertake
a speaking tour to exhort other 21-somethings and under not to
do what he did and show at least a modicum of respect for a foul
tempered 12 lane highway and the megaton vehicles that rumble
over it every split second. |
