Adam Lehman in car accident in London, recovering

Hey Adam,

(If you read this) I hope everything is really ok and wish you the speediest recovery.

I was looking forward to our meeting on Wednesday in Munich... I guess that's one we'll have to put on ice!!!

Take it easy + All the best,
Darren

Ps. A big get well from all the guys on the FusionReactor team...

Hey Chris, the thought crossed my mind that it may have been while crossing the street, as it's indeed a common problem for Americans in the UK, but Mark doesn't indicate that in his blog entry, so I don't know that we should assume that was it.

The good news, for Americans in London, at least, is that they do put out a LOT of signage on the ground and at crossings to warn us to look the opposite way we're used to.

That's good to hear, Chris. I lived in Australia 13 years ago and they didn't have the signs then. :-) Not even in Canberra, where lots of us Americans worked supporting the federal government. Of course, Canberra's pretty low-key traffic-wise (not quite a backwater as some Aussie's would insist!), so I didn't have trouble there, but on visiting Sydney and Melbourne, yeah. :-)

Really, the more difficult thing about the "opposite side of the road" thing, for me at least (even in the ACT), was getting into the wrong side of the car. Doh! So embarassing. Or while driving looking up to see the rear view to find yourself looking out the window instead. :-) It was funny how many weeks it took to break those habits.

Even then, there were scary remnants of the problem when I returned home (or came back), when a few months after leaving one or the other I'd find myself turning onto a street with no signs or cars to give me a cue, and I'd freak for a moment thinking, "crap, which side am I supposed to be on?!" I actually was mistaken a few times both here and there, but fortunately was always able to recover before getting into trouble.

But all this of course is not meant to take away from Adam's situation, nor to insinuate at all that any of it was a factor in his accident. Again, we do wish him well.

Sorry Chris, I thought of that after sending. That said, I was writing both about *an* American (Adam) and *as* an American (myself), so I hope I might be forgiven the slip. Still, I should keep in mind always that I have readers from the world over. No offense was intended (yes, I saw the smiley face. Just covering bases.)

Then again, it's certainly more than just the UK that drives on the opposite side (I never said "wrong", but I understand the sensitivity to it being called that often). I've enjoyed driving on the normal side down your Autobahn. :-)

But really it's less than "like 90%" of the world that drives on the right, though of course it depends on how you count them. For those interested, here's an interesting site (can't confirm its sources) that indicates that 74 countries drive on the left, vs 166 that drive on the right (http://tinyurl.com/3...).

Naturally, one may say, "yeah, but if those are small countries then it still may be only a small percent of the world population". Well, they show a breakdown by population, too (http://tinyurl.com/4...). It shows that fully 34% of the world population drives on the left. Interesting.

Then I found this map which shows the countries, and it would seem by land mass that it may be more like the 10-20% that drive on the left, as Chris asserted.

Taking it to an extreme, :-), this page (http://www.brianluca...) breaks it down by actual paved roads, and it's back to about 30% driving on the left.

Anyway, the bottom line, FWIW, is that the confusion of driving on the opposite side would clearly affect a lot of people, in either direction, in lots of the world, and that was the main point Chris was making, I think. It's not just a US/UK thing. 'Nuff said. :-) Let's all get back to work, except for Adam, who we hope is resting comfortably.

PS Glad to hear that Josh is coming on in Adam's place. I had heard it may be possible but didn't want to say anything until it was confirmed. For those who don't know, Josh came on board to Adobe in February to step in (as CF SE) when Adam stepped up to take Ben's role of CF Evangelist (when Ben moved to be over all Adobe evangelists.) So I'm sure Josh will do a great job stepping in even on short notice to substitute for Adam in this situation.

Get well soon!

wish you the best Adam, hope you get better soon.

Hi adam,

If you are reading this ... Get well soon Pal.

GodSpeed

Adam is indeed doing well (apart, perhaps from English hospital food which is a terror that will last with him long after he's forgotten the accident). He has had successful surgery on both the leg and shoulder and when I saw him at the hospital yesterday he was doing very well and there was talk of him being able to fly home in a few days.

Mark Drew has been really amazing - helping out with everything from sorting out Adams luggage to going on pie runs (man cannot live on NHS food alone :-) ).

And sad to say,. Adam did indeed "pull an American" and look the wrong way/ But to be fair I was born in the UK, lived there over 20 years and visit often and I've still had a couple of close calls on my trips over here - it's easy to do.

Wow, so it he did "pull an American". Yikes, Adam, so sorry to hear that.

@Chris, as for the statistics, I just did a quick Google search and found a few sites that had the info. The 2 tinyurls actually point to the same page, but different anchors within it. Sadly, they used spaces in their names and the blogcfc tool for showing URLs as links didn't like that--even with %20 used for the space, which was odd. I even tried changing it to +. but the web server wouldn't process it the same, which I thought even more odd.

Anyway, I see that I forgot to include the link to the graph I mentioned, showing the world map and who drove on what side. One is available here: http://en.wikipedia....:Countries_driving_on_the_left_or_right.svg

In fact, wikipedia has an entire entry on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.... In fact, it offers a very interesting couple of stories of the history of why it may have started on the right, then moved to the left. Both involve horses, though it indicates that citations are needed.

Anyway, Chris, it's funny that you mention I missed one: "the percentage of people who visit countries where they drive on the other side of the road". I actually wondered about that, but didn't see it readily, and like I said, it felt like it was time to move on. :-)

Sorry to hear that Josh's fill-in may not have gone as well, but it was pretty dire circumstances and if I know Josh, he gave it all he could.

@Peter and Mark, thanks so much for the updates "from the scene". It's great to hear the straight scoop, and especially good to hear encouraging news on his prognosis and possible release.

And good on ya', Mark, for playing such an excellent nursemaid. :-) Just kidding. You're being a real friend, and the community thanks you for your being there, just as they do for the work on CFeclipse--well, at least those who use it. :-)

Three cheers for Mark: hip hip hooray...

I should also point out that it is really the responsibility of the car driver to not hit pedestrians. This is the case in Oz and should be the same elsewhere. As Adam discovered it hurts to be hit by a car (I know from personal experience). All you drivers out there - give way to pedestrians!!! (please)