Good samaritans

About 5 months ago my wife and I were going to a social gathering in Anglesey which was starting at 11.30am, so we set off from our home in Flintshire, North Wales at 9am giving us one and a half hours to travel the 70 miles to get there.

We were travelling along the A55 past Abergele. My wife was driving up a slight incline. She was accelerating to go faster, and although the engine was accelerating, the car was not moving any faster. It was obvious that the clutch must be slipping.

I've driven all sorts of vehicles for over 50 years, cars, vans, motorbikes, small lorries and tractors and have never had a clutch slip on me before.

My wife kept on driving as we were most eager to get to the meeting. However, about 12 miles after driving over the Menai Bridge to Anglesey the clutch went altogether and the car came to a stop. After the car stopped moving my wife trod on the brake pedal, but it rolled back a yard or so. The trailer with my electric scooter on it went slightly across the roadway.

Many cars passed us tooting their horns at us in annoyance, but there was absolutely nothing we could do.

Fortunately, we had our mobile phone with us, and we phoned for help. We were stuck there for nearly three quarters of an hour, hearing irate drivers tooting their horns angrily at us.

Another car went past us. His brake lights came on, and I said to my wife "That car looks as if he is stopping". His reversing lights came on as he reversed back down to us, and the young driver came to our car, asking if we were in trouble. We told him that we sure were!

The young man went to unhook the trailer from our car and as he was unhooking it another driver also stopped. Between them they pushed our trailer into a lay-by.

We thanked both men profusely, real 'good samaritans'!

Road rage

There is quite rightly much publicity given to the disgraceful evidence of 'road rage'.

But what about the opposite of road rage?

The good humoured drivers. As a person with MS I went recently to a respite care home at Dyserth near Prestayn, Wales for a break.

One nice sunny day I had seen a sign saying 'Prestatyn 4 miles', so I thought that I would go on my Bec electric scooter to Prestatyn. I had 2 new batteries at £100 each, which it stated were capable of a 20 mile run.

However on my way back it was obvious that the batteries were running down. I wanted to go up a slight slope to get onto the kerb. I was unable to get up the slope.

So I called to a young boy aged about 10 years old who was cycling around to give me a push. This he willingly did, and I carried on along this kerb until the kerb came to an end. This meant that I would have to cross the road to get to the kerb on the other side.

As there was no traffic about I started across the road at about half a mile an hour. When I was half way across a car came from my left, so I stopped. So did the car. Then another car came from my right and he also stopped.

In just a few seconds there were a number of cars, and a large juggernaut, all stopped. But they all had pleasant smiles (and not smirking smiles). When they were passing, yes still smiles, and the juggernaut driver called out to me. He sounded like an Irish Scouser (having been married to a Liverpool Lass (a 'Scouser') for 46 years I quickly recognised the accent). He called over to me "And are yu shore dat yur alreet maite?". I just smiled and nodded back to him.

But what lovely, friendly people. The exact opposite of road rage!