Today I heard it again for the third time in as many weeks: the sound of a road traffic accident - The sound of squealing tires followed by the crunch of metal into metal.

Visible from the office window is where a lot of traffic turns right across a pretty busy road into the section opposite. So having heard the initial impact I can look out over the scene has people climb out of their cars and start blaming each other.

It would seem that usually no one is hurt. Some weeks back a motorcyclist came off his machine and spent a couple of minutes stationary on all fours before he got up and walked away. Most worryingly his helmet had apparently come off during the incident.