I am on a company assingnment in Brazil. Traffic is very bad here but coming home a few months ago I ran into a Galaxy Class traffic jam that took me 5 hrs to get home. The cause started with a motorcycle and ended with a tanker truck flipping over. What caused the motorcycle accident you ask? Let me back up. It is a very popular hobbly to "kite fight" here. Two guys fly their kites and try to cut each ohters strings. Since there is no open space in the city, they fly them over the highways. They use a special filiment they buy from Chile that is very stong. Then, they take old bottles and crush them into a powder. This powdered glass is then used to coat the kite string and give it a better cutting edge. On this day, two guys were fighting and one of the kites dove down to the highway just as a woman on her motorcycle was approaching. Sure enough, it got her at neck level cutting into her and causing her to crash the bike, an approching tanker was not able to stop in time , killed the girl , flipped and casued the traffic jam. I noticed , prior to this event, what I thought were two radio antennas on either side of the handle bars on many , many motorcycles. After this I asked around and now know they are used as kite string deflectors. Crazy place.
Wasserwolf
