Silent Facade

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Accident

Usually the only thing I see of any vehicular accidents is the end result - the wreakage. Today, I eye witnessed the entire process of a car accident.

I was walking towards Taman Jurong Mac to meet the xiong dis when it happened at the junction near it. A red car was travelling on the second lane when it turned left into the carpark of what used to be Tang Dynasty. I believed that was a last minute decision as there was no signal given and it was the wrong lane to turn in from as well. Probably realised at the last minute that if he went straight he would hit the AYE which probably was not where he wanted to go.

In any case, a silver car was just streaking down the first lane at the same moment the red car was turning in and wham bam!

At first I thought it would be just a simple hit and skid accident. Imagine my horror as I saw the red car turned turtle instead of skidding from the impact. Either the impact was strong enough to turn the car over but not enough to do it with speed, or everything went slow motion for me.

I ran over with some other passer-bys to help the passengers out. It was a family of four - two young boys and their parents. Miraculously, all but the mother were superficially all right when we got them out. Even then, the mother only had a few drops of blood on her head which was probably from a small wound.

Being in an accident is bad enough. To have your family members at risk as well, I can just imagine how much guilt the father (the driver) must be having.

I did not stayed long after getting the family out as by that time around 10 people (not including the victims) were milling about, most doing nothing so I figured one less does not really matter.

I guess that is one of the mystery that comes with accidents. The time it happened, there were only two other passer-bys aside from me. By the time we got the family out, there were at least 5 more with us and 10 across the road gawking. It must be the eight wonder of the world.

Oh, do not ask me for the car plate numbers of the vehicles involved. I did not even notice the make of the cars. However, I sure given the number of people gawking, there will not be a lack of sources.

posted by Cylee at 7:18 pm I