Road Traffic Accidents

 I had my second car accident in 25 years today (27 May 2009)

I drove to Wisma Atria to get my Sony laptop repaired. My Sony laptop shows a blue screen on and off.  However when I was trying to show the technician at the Sony Service centre, I could not demonstrate the blue screen again. What a wasted trip? I decided to bring back the Sony.

The turning to get out of the Wisma Atria was extremely narrow and it has a sharp angle to go down the slope at the exit. I tried my best to avoid scratching my car but I still got my car jammed between the left wall and the front right column. I tried to reverse to get out of the sandwiched situation but a white Toyota came behind me suddenly. I heard a ‘Tud” and I knew I have hit into someone’s bumper.

The driver, a man in his thirties immediately came out of his car to check the damage on his bumper.  But I wound down my window and told him to reverse his car to clear the way for other vehicles. We drove to a corner to avoid traffic obstruction.

I said a little prayer before approaching him.  I shook his hand and immediately told him it was all my fault and I would pay for the damages. He appeared surprise. I examined his right bumper which was slightly dislocated and asked him if he would like to take a photograph first.

I gave him my name card and showed him my driving license to assure him that the name card belongs to the correct person. He went to check my car and was surprised that I did not even bother to have a look at my own car.  He remarked that it is a new Teana. I said yes. He asked why I am not bothered about the damages to my own car. I smiled and said I felt bad that I have to inconvenient him over this incident. He has to waste time to get his car fixed. Well, I told him, “Is only a car. The damage if any has already been done.”

I shook his hand again and took his name card. He runs a? construction/renovation company. I assured him that I will pay for the damages and he does not need to worry and said sorry one last time before driving off.

I surveyed my car when I reached my office. The back bumper was not even dented or scratched but the left door was scratched by the wall at the exit of the carpark from level 4.

My First Accident was a near death  encounter

My first accident happened some 16years ago at Bukit Batok when my daughter was still a toddler. I was driving a Mazda 323 and was at a  junction trying to turn right to get home. It was in the evening and the traffic was heavy.  The traffic light was red. Suddenly I saw a car heading across the Red traffic light on the other side of the road. Something was wrong. In those split seconds I realized the car was coming towards my stationary car. I quickly looked around to see if I could drive forward or reverse backward to avoid this car that appeared out of control. But my car was sandwiched among other vehicles. I tried to release the safety belt in case I needed to evacuate from the car later.

Everything happened so fast yet, I was able to do all these things including turning to tell my wife to get ready because our time is up.  In the final second, I quickly leaned towards the left since the impending impact would be on my right door.

The out of control car climbed over the road divider  veered a little and hit the back of our car before coming to a halt some 50 meters away.

Thank God that the road divider caused it to slow down and changed its direction. The back of my car was badly damaged but we were all unharmed. My daughter was strapped in her car seat and was also unharmed.

I took a deep breath and thanked God for protecting us. Then I walked slowly towards the other car. The driver was an old man. I think he must have fallen asleep. He thought I was going to punch him or scold him for almost killing us.

But I did not. I asked if he was alright and patted him on his shoulder.  I told him I was just glad we were not hurt and told him to drive his car to a place where we would not obstruct the traffic. In fact he later told me that he was surprised that I was more concerned about whether he was hurt by the accident.

We did the usual things by exchanging our particulars and the matter was settled weeks later after we got our car repaired.

Life can be really unpredictable isn’t it?

 Who knows when we will just disappear like the morning mist?