Traffic Life : Passionate Tales and Exit Strategies
Edited by Stephan Wehner
An Anthology
 
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130 First, you buy a car Compensation Corporation accountants keep busy figuring out the costs, expenses, overheads, and most important of all, the personal super-annuation benefits they will receive. New Zealand roads are a bit different from those in the rest of the world. The accident rate is about double, some- times triple, anyplace else in the world, for the roads are narrow, poorly designed, terribly marked, and woefully kept. But you finally get on the road, and fail to notice the lit- tle sign that a speed camera is lurking nearby. Past that, the inevitable happens. You get a ding, or a prang, when a vehicle in front or to the side stops too suddenly. Your bon- net and the other vehicle's boot are damaged. No injuries, thank goodness, but your vehicle is a bit of a mess. You are thankful that you have insurance. The traffic officer helps sort things out, and the tow truck pulls your vehicle away to a garage. The panel beaters look and study the situation, knowing that parts cost a lot. They smile, happily, as they anticipate their next week's wages. You pay their bills. Finally, a week or two later, you get back on the road again, and sail down the highway. You are busy tuning in the radio, listening to kiwi-music! This time, there is no sign, but a traffic officer notes you travelling along, just a bit above the speed limit. Calling up your past history on the police computer, you are quickly notified that you have now four speeding offences in six months. You are promptly given a summons to court. You anticipate so you hire a solicitor (lawyer), and pay that bill, as requested, before the services are delivered. On your drive to the court, you again run into someone who stops short. This time you have a more serious prang. In fact, the vehicle is totalled. At least you have an excuse for arriving late to the court. You pay the bill for the tow truck, the extra not covered by your insurance company and an extra 0 for the annual police benefit ball. While you are waiting for the next date for the revision of the court summons, you study your situation. You no- tice, even though you have a warrant of fitness, a driver's license, insurance, and other necessities, you seem to have forgotten, in all your busy-ness, to follow up and get a reg-
  
Robert Gregory 131 istration. You have been driving an unregistered car! They will exact a price for that for sure. It looks like a jail term! Then you add up your expenses thus far. Your motor vehicle has cost you more, much more, than you make at work, and you decide that you have to declare bankruptcy. You are now, more than ever, certain that with an unreg- istered vehicle, you will go to jail. But on the other hand, you know that even though your vehicle is now totalled, you have made so many people happy, you have put so much enthusiasm and money into the venture, that just as soon as possible, you will certainly go out and purchase another motor vehicle. After all, you could just as easily have bought a horse, or a plane, or a bicycle, or a place in the local mental health asylum. Once you become part of any system, you are in- deed part of the system and subject to all of its require- ments and responsibilities.

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