I needed a new guitar. It was time to upgrade, and so I made plans to get it. The day came for me to go get it, and the plan was straightforward: drive a couple of miles to the guitar shop, pick the guitar I wanted, drive back home, and then unbox and fire away on the new baby. How I ended up at the hospital that day paying bills and eventually at the police station was not in the picture, however.
I consider myself to be a good driver, not because I have been driving for a very long time now, but because I am pretty damn cautious, alert, never overspeed, and always in control whenever I am behind the wheel. The problem, however—especially in most accidents—is that some circumstances can just be unfortunate and/or other drivers aren't exactly as sane as you are in the moment.
I had successfully driven safely all the way from home to the guitar shop, both of which are in different states of the country, had no issues with anyone, and it was just when I was just a few minutes away from home on my way back that the accident happened.
There are four lanes on the highway here, and each of them has certain rules. If you're going to overtake, then only use the fast lane (the leftmost). If you're not going to be driving pretty slow, have an issue with your vehicle, or need to make a turn off the highway, you have to be in the rightmost lane. And then the middle lanes are the normal driving lanes.
I had to run errands on my way, along with doing my own bidding, and the last on the list was gasoline. I was to refuel the car and also get some for the generator at home. To avoid carrying it all around in the car, I was supposed to stop at the last filling station instead. However, forgot.
It was a few minutes after approaching the filling station that I remembered. But there was no way of just pulling over and then suddenly turning right into the filling station. I'd cause too many problems for myself and those driving, too, and maybe get into an accident. I had to proceed with caution.
I was in the fast lane at that moment, as I was busy overtaking—and forgetting the filling station—and the only way to make it into the filling station safely was to actually keep going, stop in the slow lane when I could, and then reverse to the filling station.
It started to decelerate the car. I looked back and right to ensure I was clear to start shifting lanes, and when I saw that I could, I turned on my pointers and started shifting lanes. I had only made it into the next lane when I was hit from behind by a motorcycle.
Taken aback, I maintained grip on the steering, aborted the mission to keep shifting, took a look at the rear mirror to see what had just happened as I was oblivious, and the next part of the movie continued.
The moment I took a quick look at the rear mirror, the motorcyclist leaped so close to the front of my car. I don't know how that happened, but I almost hit him head-on. I was quick and swerved to be able to avoid that. But I hadn't forgotten the out-of-focus look of the object that fell off the bike when it collided with me. I thought it was the seat of the motorcycle, which was rolling on the floor when it fell. I was wrong. It turned out to be the passenger.
Here is where it gets worse...
The rear tyre that was hit got deflated, so I managed to stop quickly and left the car for my brother to handle so I could attend to the problem at hand.
When I got down, she, the passenger who fell off, had been helped away from the road to the roadside. Right there where she sat, she bled profusely. It was so much that the sand beneath her couldn't soak it up. Luckily for us all, she didn't get a fractured bone or something. I wouldn't even know, though. She was in a lot of pain, however.
Some angels and her family witnessed the whole thing and stopped to help us out. They then drove the brutally bruised woman, the injured motorcyclist, and myself along with them to the nearest hospital.
When we got there, we immediately asked for the emergency section so they would attend to us. Surprisingly to me, they did attend to us quickly. But the bills—my God, the bills just kept coming in. From this to that to this, all to be paid on the spot. This family kept paying for it all. I was astonished.
While they were trying to administer treatment to the woman and we waited, my brother was on the other side, running for his life. Apparently, hooligans were looking for the owner of the vehicle to apprehend, as well as the police.
My brother and my mother met at some point, as home wasn't far, and they met us at the hospital. It turned out that the family that was helping out knew my brother and me, as well as my mother. The wife taught alongside my mother in a school many years ago. I was once in this woman's class as a little child.
I knew it was her when we met at the accident scene, actually, and she knew it was my brother and I as well. That's mostly why they went the extra mile for me—because they were family to us.
Back to the police: they came to find me at the hospital, much after the woman stabilised, and that's when another saga began. The police that I thought were "our friends" turned out to make the day even worse, and I was arrested and taken to the police station. This is another story for another day.
Eventually, after the saga with the police, the lady recuperated and was discharged home the next day, and she and the motorcyclist were fine in the end.
It was a traumatic experience for me. I couldn't drive for a long time after that because, well, someone could have died in that accident. Imagine if there were cars right behind me when that accident happened; the woman may have been, you know...
My guitar, on the other hand, remained in the box for a few days as I couldn't bring myself to unbox and enjoy it after all that had happened. But that was three years ago, anyway. And, thankfully, the woman is fine and doing alright.
