See The Structure of Sound

Simply put, to, ‘drive without due care and attention’. It is exactly what it says. Driving (in control of a vehicle – yes, it can be a bicycle) without (paying) due care and attention (to the road and surrounds about you. Including; other vehicles, persons, animals and property). That was me. On my bicycle. Racing to school and, as I went to swing out to pass a vehicle parked beside the curb, I swung out a little wide and, without glancing behind first to ensure all was safe to do so (no such thing as bike lanes in those days), it happened. With a blaring of a car horn, a definite squeal of brakes, a car’s, not mine unfortunately, as all I had were the old back brake and a minor frontal grip below the left handle of the bike. To use the hand brake you had to let go of any grip you had on the handle bar extend your fingers straight down and grab the small bar below the handle. That back brake was faster. That was where you had to reverse the direction of the pedal, and stand down on it. I remember practicing the reverse brake and slide on the gravel tracks in the area. Trying to create that classic sideways drift stop at right angles to your direction. However in this instance, the muscle memory did not kick in. All I recall is the horn, the squeal of brakes and the sound of ‘KLRUMP’.

‘KLRUMP’ is a very special sound. It involves three aspects of audio effects. The first is that combination of specific matter being collided together at speed (eg:the bike, the car and the child) Not all materials produce the same ‘KLRUMP’ sound. It must involve not only hard matter travelling at speed (eg: Car, motorbike, truck etc), but logically a certain amount of soft matter as well (eg: a child or animal……. Did you just react at the mention of an animal? But not at the mention of a child? Mmmm?).The second requirement is the auditory exclusion effect. Where despite all the noises around you, as the adrenaline (that primitive possibly life-saving chemical which your body produces) is dumped into your system, sound is instantly muted. Some sounds will get through to the auditory receptors, others you cannot even recall hearing.

I have heard and seen many examples of this over the years. As people’s attention in a critical instance, is focused on one sound and, despite screamed warnings etc, the focus is so great all other sounds fail to register. You have probably experienced this yourself, without being aware at the time. Another reason listening to witnesses after an event can be confusing. So many people hear different things yet often they are all hearing the same thing. It depends on how their body reacts to the effect. It is often determined by stress and the person’s reaction to it. It takes a lot of practice to avoid auditory exclusion from occurring. A lot of training and self-control. Which as a child in the middle of an occurring traffic accident, I didn’t possess at the time.

(Continued tomorrow)