Editorial: We can all make mistakes

There's nothing more mortifying than doing something really stupid - in a public place.

Having been there myself, I felt for the woman who, turning right out of a central Rotorua street, clearly misjudged the turn and drove straight over the end of the traffic island - and the sign concreted into it. She took the sign with her and it made a hell of a racket.

Being lunchtime, plenty of people were around to witness her error.

As often happens in these situations, it appeared she didn't quite know what to do afterwards and she pulled over a little way down the street into which she'd made her grand turn.

But I didn't see her get out of the car, even just to check there was nothing dangling from its rear as a result.

After a moment she drove off, presumably just too embarrassed to even get out of her vehicle.

Some nice bloke picked up the damaged sign and put it out of harm's way, and I heard someone ask if anyone had noted the woman's number plate.

Lunchtime passers-by remarked to one another about the incident, some less empathetic than others.

A woman told me she once saw someone at a vehicle testing station drive straight into a pit, rather than parking over it. I thought it was a real pity she didn't get the opportunity to mention it to the woman who had just driven over the traffic island - the story might have helped to lessen the embarrassment.

As people say, there's always someone worse off than you or, in this case, someone who's done something more stupid.

Speaking of which, I very clearly recall being utterly mortified when, turning into the entranceway of a carpark area I misjudged the width of the opening and that of our car and put a huge, deep scratch right down the side of the blue paintwork.

Maybe the traffic-island woman is afflicted by the same lack of judgment as I or perhaps she usually drives a much smaller car and forgot she was in her husband's vehicle when she made that fateful turn.

I hope the traffic-island lady's day got better. In the big scheme of things, apart from a munted sign, no damage appeared to have been done, nobody got hurt and she was able to continue on her way, perhaps a little shaken and embarrassed but thankfully unharmed.

These things happen to us all at some point. Nobody's perfect. - APN News & Media