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| Saturday, February 18, 2006 |
| oops. |
I had an accident early this morning around 4 am. No not the bed staining type. Haven't had those for a while. This was a little more solid. Very much so actually.
Was driving home from mamak in subang eh. One of the corners is a bit of a blind corner. Not seeing any lights or car, I just drove on without stopping.
WHAM
Keith was in the front passenger seat and he elbowed me hard in the ribs, such was the force of the impact. A white evo VII was staring down at me from the left windscreen. Literally kissing my car. Neither of us had seen him right up until when his bumper was attached to my door. His rm4000 lights weren't even on. But then again, I came out of the junction without stopping. My bad. My very bad.
He was about 19 years old. Orangy-brown hair. Kinda like a leaf in autumn. About half a head shorter than me. He leapt out of his car screaming bloody murder. Not at me actually. Just at the sky and road and buildings and scurrying cockroaches in general. He screamed and screamed some more for about 5 minutes before he realised I was standing next to him trying to settle him down.
"MY INTERCOOLER!!! MY LIGHTS!!! MY BUMPER!!! MY BONNET!!! etc etc etc"
In another ten minutes, he had called about 20 friends to the scene. What for, I shall never know. To intimidate me? I doubt it. Drama queen, most def. For the record (and all the guys will ask the question anyway) his was quite a souped up evo VII. Turbo and all that stuff. Mine was a 1992 proton saga, bordering on the edge of road-worthiness.
It was the worst accident I've ever been involved in. My entire front passenger door couldn't open. Even the glove compartment was banged up. The rim on my front left tire was cracked. I couldn't steer the car properly so there was probably some other damage I can't recognize. Brushing aside the obvious complications and hassle and driving around for the report and all that boring nonsense, the incident kinda really brought home a couple of things to me.
If mr evo VII had been going any faster, Keith might have had much more than a bruised lower chest wall.
It only took a second's lapse of concentration on my part. That's all. Just a second.
I never knew my dad could look so angry. He's a pretty calm guy most of the time but he's got this really intense flame in his eyes when he's angry. He'd wilt grass just by staring at it. Must be to make up for the loss of skeleton-warrior summoning ability (inside joke).
Life has never seemed so fragile to me.
Sure, I've done some minor ward rounds and seen people die, but the fragility of life never really hits home till something bad happens to someone you actually know. And I'm not talking about a friend's cousin's mother's twin's brother-in-law's granduncle twice removed kinda thing. Someone you interact with on a fairly regular basis.
You know those old drunk driving adds? The one where the guy insists that he's ok to drive, ends up in an accident, and only he survives? As he lies in his hospital bed, a myriad of tubes stuck into him with the prerequisite hospital ICU beeping in the background, he says "john... john... I killed my brother..." and then the scene fades to black with the words "jangan minum dan pandu" in big bold white letters, followed by company endorsement logos.
That coulda been me in that scene. Except that I wouldn't be saying john, but Keith. And I don't have a brother so I can't say a killed my brother eh. But you get the picture. I couldn't focus at all today. Could just stare at my books and absorb nothing.
Imagining trying to explain what happened to Grace should anything more had happened to Keith. She'd kill me. But I'd kill myself first if anything I did caused a friend to die. So she'd have to strangle me first before I hang myself. erhm getting a bit too macabre.
Before you call the shrink and the anti depressants down on me though, I'm ok eh. Just a bit on the brooding side today. Close (ok maybe not so close but close enough) shaves do that to you. But the fact that I can write about it says more about my mental health than anything I can say to convince you I'm ok eh.
Oh, and about the resolution of payment and all that, he's claiming from his insurance and I from mine. Gotta pay me dad the compound fine back though.
Incidently, I seem to be pissing people off quite a bit these past few days. Pissed off a good good friend the other day, and today, my dad. I hope that this isn't the beginning of a trend... |
posted by theycallmecruel @ 3:46 AM  |
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wheeeeeeeeeee
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