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Last week I decided to take a walk at night in my locality. The weather was cool and calm and I thought to myself that taking a walk might just help open up my mind and remind me of an incident of my life that taught me something meaningful. Just as I walked past a deserted street and reached a junction that lead to the main road I heard a screeching sound of a fast turning car followed by a sudden halt. I stood still as my mind went back to a day in 1999 when my dad was driving me home from my aunt’s place.
It was a bright sunny day in June and we were parked at a red light, cheerfully listening to the radio and cracking jokes when suddenly a car zoomed past us at full throttle. The driver not only jumped the light but was in clear violation of the speed limit. Before my father and I had consumed the gravity of the situation, the light turned green and we started to drive again. We drove about a mile discussing the perils of the driver’s actions, about how jumping a light and over speeding could be fatal to both the driver and the people around him. Suddenly up ahead in the distance we saw what was probably an obvious consequence of the driver’s over speeding, but hard to believe to the eyes, shocking to the mind and heart breaking to the soul.
The over speeding car had crashed into a stationary van while negotiating a sharp turn. The car was wrecked beyond recognition, the van was crumpled from behind, passerby’s were still recovering from the shock of the sound. A huge crowd had gathered to see the remnants’ of the collision. While I was still trying to absorb what exactly had happened, I heard my dad dial the ambulance and narrate the exact location of the crash. I felt a little ashamed of myself as while I was still trying to gather what had happened, my dad had not only realised the need of an ambulance to save a life but had also called for one.
As we got off our car and walked towards the site of the accident, we noticed that although a large crowd had gathered near the accident site no one moved forward to rescue the person behind the wheel in the car. No one stepped too close to the car. My dad immediately walked through the crowd and headed right to the driver’s seat and tried the door. It was locked. The car’s airbags had opened, keeping the driver upright in his seat. Very soon the ambulance and cops arrived. The ambulance personnel quickly rescued the man from the driver’s seat and took him to the hospital while the cops controlled the crowd and overlaying traffic jams. The cops took a few statements from passerby’s who witnessed the accident. The series of events involved in the accident were noted by the cops after which they dispersed the crowd.
We sat in our car and drove back home. This time silent and still in shock. In my hearts of heart I was truly thankful that nobody else was hurt in the accident. Being a crowded and busy street there were not just many other cars that could have been a part of the collision but there were also many pedestrians. Although I was annoyed at the sheer negligence of the driver, secretly I was hoping in my mind that the driver of the car would survive the accident unscathed.
I learnt a lot from this incident. First and foremost I learnt about the importance of traffic rules and regulations. I realised that they are not merely measures to be followed to be a good driver, but they are measures that if not followed, can prove to be fatal to the lives of many.
Second I realised that while driving a car, the driver should not only completely avoid being an offense driver but also should fully adopt the practise of defensive driving. To elaborate, offense drivers not only drive rashly, banishing all traffic rules, they also put the lives of other people on the roads at risk. On the flipside, a defensive driver follows all traffic rules, is fully aware of the movement of not only his car but also the cars around him and has mastered the mechanism of driving efficiently, safely and attentively.
Third and the most important lesson I learnt from this incidence that day was from the act of promptness and responsiveness my father showed in calling the ambulance. While I got emotional looking at the car crash, my father put all else aside and quickly responded to the situation by calling an ambulance. This saved precious moments that decided the fate of survival of the negligent driver. Had my father or someone else not thought promptly to call the ambulance, the person in the car might have lost out on the odds of survival. Very often the situation requires one to think and act promptly instead of getting emotional and being absorbed by feelings of shock and grief. My dad’s responsiveness definitely helped the man much more than his grieving would have. Hence I learnt about the importance of keeping a firm grip on every situation by giving emotions the back seat, about thinking on my feet and initiating damage control in severe situations instead of grieving or blaming others.
I recovered from the flashback of the incident within a split second and rushed in the direction of the sound. Having learnt from the previous incident, I knew I had to act on my feet if the need be. Gazing, hoping and grieving were no longer on my mind. My main motive was to get to the site and act promptly in all my capacity. As I reached the site, panting from the quick run, I gained that a dog had suddenly come in the way of a speeding car and the driver had abruptly braked to save his life. Although the dog was unscathed, it was drenched in fear. I picked him up and soothed him for a while. Soon he was looking up and cheerful again and I left him to take the walk back home.
