Holy Shit

For those who don't know where I live relative to the UNB campus (i.e. everyone except Nancy) I'm going to give a little description of my walk to school.

I leave my apartment and head down a street towards Forest Hill Road, which runs in front of the university. About half way down I turn onto a side street and walk until I come to a path between houses. I take this path and I eventually come out by an old industrial building that is in the process of being torn down. From there it's just a quick sprint across the highway and I'm at the southeastern most point of campus, just behind the Aitken Centre.

To get back home I just follow the reverse. It's not an exciting walk, but tonight was a little different.

Tonight, as I was walking up the hill next to the Aitken Centre, I could spot the lights on the top a transport truck that appeared to be parked along the side of the road.

"That's odd. There's really not enough room for a transport to pull onto the shoulder there, and there's even less of a reason for one to do so"

As I get closer I can see it's not just a transport truck, there's cars lined up all the way down the hill as far as I can see and there's a few people running back and forth in between some of them.

"Awww feck This isn't going to make it easier."

I get closer and notice that, except for two cars, all the other cars seem to have stopped in the one lane. Ok, an accident, this makes sense. It's not going to make it any easier to cross, but it makes sense.

As I get closer I notice that there's something odd. The car behind the first one doesn't seem to be damaged. As I keep getting closer I can hear the sound of sirens approaching and notice that a number of people seem to be gathered around one spot on the highway. There's a pair of feet visible from where I currently am. As I keep walking (the professionals are just beginning to show up and I didn't see anything, so it's no use for me to stick around) I get a better look at the car in front and everything becomes clear.

It's a white van, a taxi. The windshield is covered with cracks and the bumper has something dark splashed over it and part of the hood.

Fuck.

Crossing over the highway is a frequent activity with students, there's even paths visible at several of the more popular spots to do so. If you live in the area I live in then doing so can cut 20 to 30 minutes off of a walk to school. It was really just a matter of time before something like this happened and I'm personally surprised that nothing was ever done to address the issue. Something definitely should, and probably will, be done now. Unfortunately, knowing Fredericton they'll probably do something like erect a fence all along the edge of the highway, rather than doing something constructive like erecting a walkway over the traffic.