REGRETTABLE AFFAIRS.
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The Claims Clerk Gets Busy. The Accident That Always Occurs When Work is Clamouring to be Done.
ir\NE morning, soon after M— had left, the Chief kJ called me into his office and demanded an account of my efforts towards sailing the Ship of Commerce. I took a deep breath and told him how my day was spent : one continual rush from start to finish—you know the reSt.
The Chief listened politely, and then, in a tone of patient innocence, gently inquired : "Yes, but what do you do all the afternoon?"
Further discussion ensued. " H'm, let me see," he murmured. "M—.. used to handle the motor accidents. You can hunt up the forms and take that little job over, I think, without putting an undue strain upon your health."
I speedily forgot this matter until a few days later, when driver C— crooked a greasy forefinger in my direction, his face " registering " trouble.
"Been told to ask for you and report," he said briefly.
I produced one of the insurance company's formidable accident forms, glanced down it, gave a groan, and declared the Inquisition open.
"Name and address—yes ; age— yes ; how long have you driven this lorry, three years ?—yes. What's the registration number?"
"Wait a minute," exclaimed the driver hastily ; "I'll go and have a look," Temporary collapse of myself. . . He returned, gave the information
required, and continued : "You see, I'm coining back last night about six-fifteen pip emnia, full up—the lorry, I mean—along Clapham Road, and suddenly a private car darts out of Lansdowne Road. I can't pull up quick enough nor shift my hand on to the hooterbutton, and—see !---a tram is coming up on the other side of the road, and traffic following me behind—
My blotting-pad and " N_eversharp " were requisitioned for a diagram.
"I did the only thing possible—speeded up to clear him, and, well, it didn't quite act."
"Meaning," I breathed, "you were caught astern?" "Not only in the rear, but before I could regain control my radiator and front wings got pushed back a bit against an electric lamp standard that won't light again for a while." I quivered with horror at the extent of the devastation.
"Well, I suppose you nailed some witnesses? No? Well, for all I know, the rats might have got at your Ford overnight," "All right, sir ; you've only got to look at it. A cop—policeman took full particulars. Of course, I blame the driver o? the private car—" "Of course," I agreed, with a delicate sarcasm that ought to have been kept for more appreciative ears.
" —for not sounding his horn. . . At least," the man added dreamily, "I didn't hear it."
I arrived at the section entitled "Third Party Damage," looked at the clock, folded up the form and pigeon-holed it along with my collection of income-tax demand notes. (My favourite motto is, always make trouble walk all the way, if it must come. Some of it may become too tired to reach its destination.) Rising, I whispered reverently to "Lead me to the remains."
In the yard a perplexed engineer was summing up, in vivid language pronounced in a strange northern accent, what he thought of the wreck, which had just been towed in on two wheels by a larger lorry, and how the dickens could they expect him to do anything with the jolly old bus. He simmered down after a while, however, and fitted a spare radiator that did not leak—so much.
The front axle took a lot of straightening before it was anything like mechanically true, which is by no means to be confused with the ordinary and more ambiguous forms of truth. Then the front wings were replaced by new ones, and the kinks so far as possible taken out of those at the rear.
We do not care to delay repairs, and so prompt in fact was the engineer in his work of reconstruction that, when the insurance company's inspector called the fol lowing morning to report the extent of the damage, he was amazed to hear that the car had just left on its second journey.
It is a mistake for drivers to think that accidents do not matter much just because the Chief is covered against loss. He is not in business to make money out of insurance companies, even if this were possible; he wants a good return of work done for the money he spends in wages. Accidents simply mean delays, loss of time, money and tempers. More work is thrown on the other lorries, and of necessity it behoves a driver who would regard himself as a true comrade to the rest, as well as a good workman generally, to combine a reasonable amount of caution with dispatch, whether he works by the hour, week, or "tonnage."
Accidents will always occur at some time or another, of course, but I notice that they have a way of happening on a day when work is everywhere clamouring to be done, and nothing must dare go wrong with the beautiful programme which the cartage department has planned ! It.P.