From bumped to bumper

The highway ablazed with zipping headlights. Transport of various makes and models were on their pilgrimage to a higher calling; home. Just like the rest, I too embarked on this journey to send my girlfriend home.

What can go wrong on this perfectly normal weekday night?



ANYTHING



Someone jams his brake. In front of me.

At 80 to 90 km/h, i literally floored the brakepad to prevent a collision.
At that split second, A thought came to mind... Would the car following behind me react likewise? Before my thought sentence could complete, the rear vehicle slammed into my car.

Bullet-time;
My girlfriend screams and covers her face, presumably is a girl's natural reaction. I simply braced myself, slammed the brakes and witnessed the collision process.

A loud bang.

Things within the car were flunged out of place. My spectacles literally took flight from my face and landed in the rear seats area. Watching how the boot of the mazda crumpled in front of me took me by surprise. Then it dawned upon me... what about mine?

I alighted to a sea of chaos. Other cars' passengers had alight to do damage accessment, at the same time looking out for someone to shoulder the blame. Contacts were exchanged, and some kind passer-bys stopped over and offered to help. One guy assisted by taking down the required information for such an accident and he also gave advice on how to proceed on from there. How nice.

Then an automotive workshop namecard touched my hands.

THEN A BUNCH OF THEM APPEARED FROM NOWHERE TO HELP THE REST OF THE VICTIMS.

A complete package from car towing, to repair, to insurance claim, medical claim and finally to car rental. Not a single cent needs to leave my pocket for this offer. How amazing, everything is arranged. Right down to the car that was supposed to be rented to me, was already in the car workshop! Wow wow..

I was kinda skeptical so I hesitated and delayed for time while taking advice from my half asleep dad. Advice was given and appropriate actions followed. Then during this short stint of composure, when things are settling down, something just had to break it.

The sight of my boot.

Badly compressed in with the internal frame exposed. The car behind me must have relied on my brakes to stop both our cars. Okay, me bad, my brakes is only sufficient for 1 car. So i had to share the load with the car in front because too much of a good thing would make me fat.

A total of 4 cars, me being the 2nd. But apparently I'm the most badly damaged of the lot. But then again, the 3rd car suffered several casualties, slightly crushed bonnet and a shattered windscreen. Oh well. Nothing's too joyous about winning in this league.

Traffic folks in blue arrived shortly, took some photos and conducted a on site investigation. They suspected foul play but no evidence. Routine.

The agent persisted. So after several discussion sessions, i finally relented to his sales pitch. Anyway he has everything prepared. Well.. might as well. Under his pre-arrangements,

Shortly after that, i was off zipping ard within an hour in my new rented car. $100 bucks a day for a very new car, Lancer~ The ah beng within me screamed for joy. Sadly joy was short-lived. After that had to top up petrol. and go down to tts gov hospital, etc etc.

After all that was required, i could finally hit the sack at 6am. Yeah man, no worries. Only to be woken up to my parents' interrogation.

Some parting shots.. (i'm concussing already)





bob