Alive - after motorway accident

Flashbacks of my car being hit in the slow lane of the motorway, my car veering across two lanes of the motorway, hitting the crash barrier, spinning and stopping. 

A man trying to help by opening the door to get me out. Realising all the doors were jammed shut and I was stuck in the fast lane of the motorway. 

Very lucky to be alive. A lorry driver ran over to help. I kept shouting, 'Stop the traffic! Before it hits us!' 

He ran back and parked his articulated container lorry diagonally, blocking all three lanes. I was so happy. He was brilliant. I'm alive. Can't believe it. So happy.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

My Road Traffic Accident Survival

After a road traffic accident my car went from the slow lane and ended up hitting the central reservation and spinning to a stop. Debris from two vehicles was in the road. Traffic behind us stopped. Somebody ran over to ask if I was OK and help me out. I could not move. I could open the windows but the door on my side was jammed shut. I kept saying, 'Call the police, stop the traffic before another vehicle hits us.'

The driver of a lorry assured me, 'Somebody is phoning the police.'

He ran back to his vehicle. He had parked it diagonally across the motorway blocking all three lanes so nothing could hit the debris or the two stationary vehicles in the outside two lanes or us vulnerable pedestrians.

I've discussed this with other people several times since.

My first shock was the jolt and bang as my car was hit. The second was realising my car was out of control shooting into the fast lane. The third shock was hitting the central barrier. The fourth was rotating to a stop and realising I was stuck in the fast lane where fast moving vehicles would hit my car.

The next was realising that when I got out I would be stuck on the central reservation unable to cross to the hard shoulder. While waiting to be rescued, I had nothing wider than a kerbstone to stand on. Then last shock was realising I could not get out of the car door.

A lorry driver has a responsible job. He does many hours driving for a living. He has seen accidents before. He would either have had the initiative to think what to do. And/or he knew from experience of being jammed in narrow roads that when his vehicle is diagonally across a road nobody else can pass.

The helper suggested I get out of the passenger side so I did not have the steering wheel in the way. Then he realised I could move my seat back away from the wheel. I did that and made a huge space in front of the two front seats. He told me to turn the engine on and off to see if the car doors would operate. Somebody got the front passenger seat open. Then the man on my side got the back door on my side open. Then I pushed and the door my side opened. He helped me stand up. I was shaken and nervous but uninjured with not a scratch.

Then the driver of the other car appeared with blood on her face, asking anxiously was I all right. I thought that was very nice of her, as she was bloody and I wasn't. Of course she being in the car behind had seen my car shoot across the road. I had not seen her car at all.

It was not until we were escorted back to the hard shoulder that I saw the damage to her car a few yards behind mine.

My son, Anthony, said if she had braked I would have heard a squeal of brakes and seen skid marks on the road.

My car was steered to the hard shoulder to clear the road.
I said, "Let's take photos as evidence first."

We took photos.

By now the Road Traffic police has appeared and the traffic could be seen backing up for as far as I could see.

The Travelling Speaker

In most stage presentations you have a warm-up artist. Ideally your President or Toastmaster of the evening should do this. Somebody should be setting a good example of how to use the whole stage, speak loud enough to be heard, move the lectern out of the way, engage the audience.
For table topics it's often a good idea to put an experienced speaker on first to encourage the others and show how it's done well with verve and confidence and humour. That sets the tone for the evening.
If table topics come before prepared speeches, the way has been paved.

Teaching English overseas and Giving Speeches In English to speakers of other languages

Many people stand up and apologise for their poor English and everybody nods politely and protests and reassures that the speaker is just fine. But in some countries such as Singapore the speakers join clubs specifically to improve their English.
   Clubs could have an educational on clear speech. At the start of the year do an educational on pronunciation. See how many people have problems with each letter of the alphabet and each vowel. Give the club an evening rating on how many members and visitors need and/or would like help. Ask for volunteer mentors. Put people in pairs to practise vowels or consonants for three minutes. Bring them back and see if the club's rating has improved. Either congratulate them on progress or on identifying the problem and finding a helper. Tell them to keep up the good work.
   I once gave an evaluation on a speech and told a speaker it would be improved by props. She thanked me profusely. At the end of the evening I asked if she had any questions. She asked, 'What is 'a prop'?'
   We used her Chinese-English dictionary to find several translations, translated them back into English to find the correct translation in context.
   When I was teaching English, I spoke slowly. We used to have two translators standing by the whiteboard, one for Chinese, one for Malay or Hindi. They wrote translations whenever anybody raised their little finger to show they needed a word translated.

Performing Before A Moving Audience - My Performance

Today I was performing before a moving audience. We had about three rows of chairs in front of the stage. Around the sides and back of the hall were stalls selling jewellery, handicrafts, food and services. The event was a family fun day so I knew in advance there would be children in the audience. I arrived early, in time to rehearse and time the pieces. I was allotted 6 minutes. It took only four minutes to read two poems, the snake and the cat (cautionary tale for children), the taxman (for adults), a song, and from my book of animal poetry, the Aardvark. I could add poems from my poetry book, or read slower.
If I'd been a professional performer in an upmarket venue I would have had autocues and prompts and I would have been paid so I would have put effort into learning every poem by heart. It was a recent poem and I would have to look down to read it so I started by engaging with the audience.
The Owl Puppet
I was surprised how many of the audience were under ten years old. How do performers in pantomimes keep attention? They wear absurd clothes. They talk to the children. Sophisticated poems were not for the younger ones. Nor long poems. I should have had a chorus they could repeat, remember, join in.
Although I went on stage with the red snake around my neck, I put it down and used my owl puppet from the Harry Potter show - that was the best opener.
The Snake Poem
Then back to the snake poem and the large red snake soft toy. I had censored one of my poems about a snake bite, based on a recent story about a man who got bitten in a private place. To get the attention of the children I had a large red toy snake.
Local Colour
I added some local colour, saying the snake was a local snake, but only a soft toy so not to worry.
The Aardvark
My last poem was the Aardvark, the first poem in my book of comic poetry, Angela's Animals. I asked which members of the audience had already heard of an Aardvark. Three mothers raised their hands and I complimented them on their general knowledge. I confided that I'd just spent over an hour paginating my book starting with alligator and showed it to my husband, when he pointed out that I'd left out the Aardvark, first in the dictionary and index of animal names, so I had to write another poem and paginate all over again.
Rival Performers
By now a large number of dancers in Indian costumes were queuing up to my right ready to come on stage. This was unnerving. Was I about to be literally swept off my feet by a surge of dancers?
I ended by rounding off by saying you could see me reading poems with my owl puppet on You Tube, buy my book on Animal Poetry and meet me again at Harrow Writers Circle.

Performing Poetry In Public Places

Today I performed poetry with Harrow Writers. Performing on a stage is different to reading on the radio. It's the opposite. When I did a course in radio journalism they taught us that radio is all about sound. But TV and stage are all about vision.
Static And Moving Audiences
If you are on stage there are two kinds of audiences, static, sitting quietly paying attention, and moving. My first experience of a moving audience was in a pub. What a shock after speaking on radio, where you rarely have any noise feedback, especially not in a studio.
 Ambulating Audiences
Seated audiences who are stuck are more likely to be attentive. But they can still walk in and out.
Audience Control
Toastmasters international helps speakers conquer stage fright. But little is done to help you deal with audience fright, or indeed audiences of any sort. Evaluators do comment on eye contact. Advanced speakers are advised to move about the stage to remind the audience and yourself of a time line, past, present and future.
Audience Warmup
Today I was very away of the vital service of the MC linking acts. His/her job is many layered. First to get attention. To generate an enthusiastic welcome from the audience.
That encourages the performer to look at the audience and speak up. How important it is to check the microphone height and sound so your first words are not lost.
At the start the mc has to tell us what's coming so we stay to listen and smile in anticipation. If the audience is ambulating, the mc can make passers-by sit down, walk forward to hear. Stop them muttering to each other, going to buy drinks, or going home early.
Links
Between acts the mc has to keep the audience paying attention so they don't fidget and talk to each other.
Timing
The mc has to ensure that no act over-runs so that the last performer's spot is cancelled. The last act may be polite enough to claim they didn't mind, but it's fairer to keep to time, more efficient and stops other performers worrying whether it was their fault for running over time.
The mc or last act closes the set, harking back to what was enjoyed, reminding the audience to come back again, or attend regular meetings or buy products associated with the performance.
My next article will be on performing for the ambulating audience.

Accidents Will Happen - until we prevent them

Boats should be segregated from swimmers and people on inflatables.
Boats towing skiers and inflatables should not go round in circles enabling them to hit people, but only straight along strips of water.
An alternative is an A shape channel with a docking point in the middle. You leave the shore in the west and return in the east.  An observer with a megaphone should be observing the direction and safety of the people not in the towing boat but nearby in water.
Alternatively somebody should design a mechanical towing device like on ski lifts which pulls the inflatable or the skier without allowing other boats into the area.