17/03/2011
Stifle that sneeze to stay safe
There I was stuck with nothing to write about when I was seized by the most violent sneezing fit I have ever experienced.
The whole office was silenced to an awed-standstill as my body became uncontrollably wracked by a staccato series of convulsive sneezes.
When it was over, as well as being left with a huge feeling of relief and release I was also left wondering what would have happened if the sneezing fit had occurred only half an hour earlier, as I was driving to work.
How, I wondered, would I have remained in control of my car?
The answer is that I probably wouldn’t. Because on being moved to Google my curiosity, I found that sneezing fits do indeed cause accidents and even add to the overall cost of car insurance.
Only this week a Welsh woman was cleared of causing an accident as a result of dangerous driving after her solicitor successfully argued that she had succumbed to an involuntary fit of sneezing – legally this is known as a defence of “automatism”.
The solicitor commented, "There are other cases where motorists have been cleared of driving offences when the driver had a bout of sneezing."
From now on I’ll think twice about getting behind the wheel when I’ve got the sneezes.
Image by djcmackay via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
The whole office was silenced to an awed-standstill as my body became uncontrollably wracked by a staccato series of convulsive sneezes.
When it was over, as well as being left with a huge feeling of relief and release I was also left wondering what would have happened if the sneezing fit had occurred only half an hour earlier, as I was driving to work.
How, I wondered, would I have remained in control of my car?
The answer is that I probably wouldn’t. Because on being moved to Google my curiosity, I found that sneezing fits do indeed cause accidents and even add to the overall cost of car insurance.
Only this week a Welsh woman was cleared of causing an accident as a result of dangerous driving after her solicitor successfully argued that she had succumbed to an involuntary fit of sneezing – legally this is known as a defence of “automatism”.
The solicitor commented, "There are other cases where motorists have been cleared of driving offences when the driver had a bout of sneezing."
From now on I’ll think twice about getting behind the wheel when I’ve got the sneezes.
Image by djcmackay via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
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