ACCIDENT

“The Orientals have another word for accident; it is ‘kismet’ - fate.” – Thomas Babington Macaulay

I had a car accident today as I was leaving work to go home. Another car went against a red light and hit me. Fortunately neither of us was hurt and as for the rest, it can all be repaired it’s just metal and plastic. However, as the other car was speeding it was quite fortuitous that neither one of us was even injured. Now, a few hours later, sitting here at home and thinking about it, I have quite a lot to be thankful for. I am well and so is the other driver. I can look at the situation and be able to shrug it off. Looking at my mangled car, I can still smile as there was no injury, no fatality, no serious damage.

How ridiculous we humans are, at times thinking of ourselves as immortal, invulnerable, invincible… In the blink of an eye, in a split second our whole world could collapse, we could be injured, become maimed, our life could end. We think that a multitude of silly inconsequential things are vitally significant and the only important thing is our well-being, our health, our physical (and mental!) integrity…

I felt very sorry for the other driver. She was a young probationary driver, 19-years-old or so and she was terrified. She kept apologising to me, as she was shaking and crying. I had quite a job of calming her down. The police arrived shortly after the accident and I must confess that they were quite good and took control of the situation straight away. Fortunately both of us were insured (as it turns out with the same insurance company) and now it is only the inconvenience of having to go through the process of car repairs and the trouble of making arrangements for alternative transportation.



Still, my mind goes back to the other scenario… How many people today must have been in car accidents and they never made it home? How many ended up in intensive care in hospital, how many lost life and limb? A car is indispensable nowadays, especially in large sprawling cities like Melbourne where distances are enormous and to get anywhere by public transport takes hours. However, the roads with their ever-increasing traffic and congestion, the drivers who seem to be inexperienced and/or reckless, the frustrations of our modern society, all make driving more dangerous.

In Australia, we’ve had 1,184 road deaths in 2007 to the end of September. Many thousands of car accidents with serious injuries, many more thousands with minor injuries. I am thankful that I was in this last group. Enjoy your weekend, be careful not only for yourself, but for others too. Living in a society entails responsibility not only for our own safety and welfare but also for the welfare of others.