So that's 3 accidents, 2 serious and 1 less so to hit the new James Bond film as they attempt to finish making it, and now everyone's seems convinced that the film is jinxed in some way. Even The Times, Telegraph, Independent i.e. the newspapers that I respect, have gone to sensationalist, clutching-at-straws theories about someone in the same region having a heart attack at the same time and drawing on other examples of misfortune where vague comparisons were drawn. And they're generally making Kilamanjaro out of a slight bump in the lawn.
I'm sorry! What constitutes a jinx? Just because 2 nice and expensive cars have been involved it is somehow ill-fated. No cars in Bond films would ever be such things but what if it had been a Mazda, Hyundai or Vauxhall, or any unfashionable manufacturer you care to mention in fact, that had ended up at the bottom of Lake Garda, would there have been as much hullbaloo about it?
And there's the matter of the crash itself, something just doesn't add up, firstly, shouldn't the car have been delivered on a trailer or in a container of some sort? Secondly, the driver claimed to have understeered and skidded off the road, appraoching a tight bend in the rain. What? At the corner of each car is a big, sticky tyre with deep tread patterns cut into it designed to displace the water. My Volvo manages to drive up and down the Motorway in thunderstorms and hailstones with no grip-related problems whatsoever. An Aston Martin has physically bigger tyres as well because it's got 20 inch wheels or similar which means there's physically a bigger contact patch and therefore, more grip. The notion that a car just aquaplaned like that is preposterous. Perhaps the driver ran out of talent.
I'm willing to believe that's what happened with the third incident involving the Alfa but since the driver is in hospital I'll not speculate any further.
Accidents happen, but no-one seems able to believe that, it has to have been caused by something else somehow.
Still, great publicity though; makes me want to go and see the film even more...
2008-04-25 @ 13:48