Posted by Mike Dennis on August 27, 2014 at 00:11:03 user MTD.
In Reply to: Re: Amazon and Scarab's keels/hull bottoms posted by Magnus Smith on August 27, 2014 at 23:26:58:
Accidents happen for all kinds of reasons, and it is a more recent trend to look for blame or a concrete reason.
As I've mentioned here before (probably too many times) my brother of 10 was killed when he was knocked of his bicycle in 1960. We lived in a village in Suffolk, he cycled to the local pub (not so odd when you know that the landlady was a friend of my parents and been very kind to them when they moved to the village twelve years before, we often visited there as friends not customers.)
The pub was less than 200 yards away from our cottage, my parents could have stood and watched him cycle there and back, had they done so and seen the accident they could have done nothing.
He was hit by a van, the pub is on a blind corner so a ten year old cycling out of the forecourt to cross the road to be on the left-hand side to cycle home would not have been seen by the driver. My father knew the driver, and at the inquest spoke in support of him. The verdict was an accident.
I visited the village earlier this month, the building is still there and the corner of the road is as it was sixty odd years ago.
I also know more recently from a friend of my parents still alive that my father blamed himself for letting my brother go in the first place, but it was an accident nothing can be done and nothing will bring him back.
My apologies to be maudlin, but a tragedy such as that in the ‘Mavis’ has nothing to blame, there was no malicious intent, and though it caused grief for all concerned each person has to deal with it in their own way, and looking for blame does not help.
I commend Roger for avoiding the topic whilst Pauline Marshall was still alive, I’m sure if she wanted to discuss she would have.