Mid West Monsoon Finally Arrives!

Monsoon Season Begins Early!!

This morning at 6.30 am it was obvious that Summer is over....if in fact it ever started; torrential rain, albeit only for a few minutes followed now an hour or two later by some nice sun !

Here in the Mid West we are blessed with a somewhat extra dose of Mother Natures soothing Elixir otherwise known to lesser Mortals as precipitation. See weather forecast for details…..
Our proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Stream sees to that .So it’s timely to start to prepare our Motors for the coming Deluge. One plus point about living in the West as a motorist is that we don’t get the same level of frost or snow as in Dublin and down the East coast so it’s not quite so hazardous in the Winter months.
Having said that, since we don’t have the opportunity to get much frost and snow driving experience, we have to be even more vigilant during the morning rush hour on the way to work , particularly if we live out in the Country. For years now it’s quite common for new residents, who are unaware of the treacherous state of these local roads in icy conditions, to still be driving at breakneck speed, overtaking everything in sight with disastrous consequences.
There is a particularly nasty section of road about three miles from Limerick , which is an undulating Z bend. Nearly every year, during the worst frost of the winter, someone fails to navigate this section and ends up through the hedge and into the Field. There have been some really serious accidents at this spot including one on a Bank Holiday about two years ago involving three cars .Two of which were learner Drivers. The road was blocked and two Ambulances ferried the injured.
This is a particularly dangerous spot as it is Farming country with usually far too much unmentionable plastering the road.

Farmers do have a job to do, but having had to negotiate four miles of crap, to put it mildly, for the last twenty five years I am not well disposed to the sport of turning a Road into a slurry track. New Drivers and residents of any rural community should be very aware of this feature of Irish country roads. They are death traps, even in summer conditions.

On the subject of Farming skills, only last year, during the local Sileage Grand Prix, my local telegraph pole got in the way of one of the front runners. While on almost full lock, and trying a daring overtaking manoeuvre, the number one driver of the East Limerick Grand Prix Team took out fifty houses in one go and left carbon fibre chards and a whole pile of wires in the middle of the Road. As well as losing telephone connections of course we went two days without Internet Coverage. Thankfully the Safety car, in the guise of Telecom Eireann, was reasonably quick on the scene but the Race continued with the culprit oblivious to the damage caused.
Just one of many stories that abound on the outskirts of civilisation. I am sure it’s the same the country over.
Spielberg’s “Close Encounters” wouldn’t even come close to the horrors of Rural motoring here in the West.
Talk soon with more Motoring news from The Wild West………..

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