Italians have a reputation as being a little bit nuts on the road. Signs and road markings are just guidelines really.
If you could expect a little bit of conscientiousness for one group of Italian motorists, it would surely be ambulance drivers.
You would be wrong though and that is something which jockey Chris Meehan discovered - painfully - at the weekend.
Meehan was riding at the Merano racecourse when he fell from his horse during a race and was then kicked in the face.
His misfortune would not halt there. The ambulance driver proceeded to drive onto - and then stop - on the Down man's leg.
Meehan gave his account of the farcical proceedings to the Racing Post.
The starter came over to help me because I was on my back and choking on my blood. He put me in the recovery position, with my right leg out straight.
As if that wasn't bad enough, the racecourse ambulance came up alongside us and reversed up onto my leg. They stopped it on top of my leg so I started screaming; it broke it straight away.
Everyone around me had to push it off me. You have to laugh really.
Curiously, Meehan and his family are no strangers to ambulances. His brother and aunt are both ambulance drivers and his father actually trains ambulance drivers throughout Northern Ireland and England.
My father actually teaches most people in Northern Ireland and England how to drive the ambulance! It's bizarre, you couldn't make it up.
Picture credit: Paul Mohan / SPORTSFILE
