Sunday, February 8, 2009

Why is sledding dangerous for Brits??

I wrote a few days ago about how most of the UK has been receiving the most snow in 20 years and the complications and ramifications have been down right funny and sometimes completely weird.

From an idiot burglar in the northeast of England to Bobbies having snowball fights with passers-by on the beat to an unusual amount of people getting injured while sledding. One even dying.

By no means do I intend to insinuate that these things do not or could not happen in other countries but it seems to be BIG news here in the UK. From my experience Americans are the most atentive to the weather forecast but Brits are not that far behind them. The major difference is that Brits tend to expect their weather to be terrible as it usually is.

But the past week's weather has taken some people by surprise because of the way the collective British society sort of threw in the towel. The Brits are a people that pride themselves on their stiff upper lip and being persistent through adverse conditions but there has been satirical news that the Nazis were going to create a snow machine to defeat the Brits that summed up the occasion perfectly.

I do not ever recall in the past 3 winters that I have been here seeing any sleds for sale at any stores here in Birmingham. And I am sure that it is purely an economical decision not to sell them as there has never been anywhere near enough snow to actually go sledding. But perhaps not having traditional sleds available to purchase led to this girl's death. Her and her friends decided to use a makeshift sled out of a car's hood and crashed through a barbed wire fence going down the hill at an estimated speed of 40 MPH.

There have also been numerous articles in the news similar to this one where people sledding have had to go the hospital. Now I have been sledding probably since before I could walk. Seriously. It is something everyone does in the northeast, as we tend to get quite a bit of snow and there are plenty of hills. But in all that time growing up I do not recall once hearing of someone dying from sledding or being injured because of it.

Maybe Brits really do need all these Health and Safety regulations that they hate so much.

And on a serious note. Why do they call it "sledging"?

2 comments:

  1. Do you have any more pictures of the kids and me? Ohh and you need to write faster lol i am done with theses stories!

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  2. Did you click on all the links and read the articles that I have in the post?

    I am trying to pace myself. Just come back every morning and eat your breakfast while you read my new post.

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