broken glass

I witnessed my first tram accident yesterday. And I was on the tram. It really was no big deal (easy for me to say as I was not in the car or driving the tram...) no one was hurt, but it was still a tiny bit exciting.

Trams have tracks. They cannot veer from them. Cars can go on the tracks but also on the road. A car was cutting in between 2 trams going opposite directions and got clipped by one then the other - the tram I was riding on was the second and our poor driver didn't know what hit him - quite literally ... I felt the brakes slam on and heard that fabulous screeching noise then saw a little silver car pop out on my side of the tram with a broken out back window.

Everyone came pouring out of the trams to get a look. Many people just kept walking down the hill as though they had seen this kind of thing a million times. I didn't know whether to stay on the tram and wait or to walk - but since it was not raining and I felt like a nice walk, I got out.

I met up with the rest of the former tram passengers at the next stop down the hill and we didn't have to wait for long. Our old tram driver was only a delayed a few moments and picked us all up again. I got back into my former seat and got a little smirk from the teen-aged kid sitting opposite me. He'd obviously experienced this kind of thing before ...

I guess there were no police reports to fill out - or at least none for our driver. I did notice as I looked back up the hill that the other driver and tram were still at the scene of the accident and the kids in the car that had been hit were all just lurking around as well. (I did manage to snap a few shots as I walked down the hill and got a few snarls from the kids who were in the car and not feeling too good about themselves and certainly did not appreciate an obnoxious American taking photos of their misfortune on her cell phone. But I was subtle - I made it look like I was dialing a number - the sound the phone makes when taking a photo gave me away though ... got to figure out how to turn that off ...)

Now I have something else to be paranoid about when driving in Zurich - not only the hidden speed trap boxes but now the trams that jump out and smash you ... yikes ...